Re: On the license audit for Debian's TeX-related packages
Hi, Frank.
On Oct 26 2006, Frank Küster wrote:
> Norbert Preining <preining@logic.at> wrote:
> > There are two areas:
> > - actual checking the licenses:
> > This is about updating the TeX Catalogue with correct/verified license
> > information. Normally it looks like this: Choose a package, get the
> > stuff from the nearest CTAN archive, check all the files for license
> > statements, MANIFEST files, etc etc etc. If you are sure what is the
> > license, update the TeX Catalogue entry for this package.
> >
> > Since teTeX and TeX Live for Debian uses the information from the
> > TeX Catalogue for License information this will end up finally in the
> > respective Debian packages.
> > required or acquired knowledge:
> > - license checking, some basic knowledge about licenses
> > - basic svn stuff, updating the TeX Catalogue uses
> > svn or sending the stuff to us.
>
> I would add here:
> - some basic knowledge about the way (La)TeX packages
> pack their stuff in dtx files and generate input files
> and documentation from that
Hummm, this is nice. I've been meaning to distribute algorithms in dtx
form, but my (spare) time is zilch right now. Reading the dtxtut would
be a good thing for an introduction to them...
> because this is needed to verify whether all files in a directory are
> actually covered by the respective license.
Indeed.
> The list of tasks is easy to describe here:
>
> - Add tpm files to tetex-base's debian/tpm/ directory until all files
> are covered
Thanks. Didn't know this.
> - check licenses until no tpm in TeXlive has "unverified" status
I will have to get familiar with the tpm scheme of texlive.
> > - improve the scripts in teTeX and TeX Live in Debian which generate a
> > license document from the installed files and the information in the
> > TeX Catalogue. This need some work, but currently neither Frank nor
> > me has time to invest much time into tpm2licenses script, which is
> > currently doing the work
> > required or acquired knowledge
> > - perl scripting
> > - debian packaging
>
> We should also try to make a list of tasks here. One that comes to my
> mind is: Allow special-cases for the tpm files which contain things from
> different CTAN packages, like the psnfss tpm files.
Ok. I see that there are plenty of things to be done. I will see what
they like the most and let them speak for themselves on what they would
like to work on.
> Better documentation of the technical aspects of texlive package
> building, license checking etc. might also be a nice side effect: Once
> you've understood it, write it down.
Yes, including this in their graduation thesis would be a really nice
addition to their work and a "reuse" of efforts. :-) I think that they
may like this point a lot. :-)
Thanks, Rogério Brito.
--
Rogério Brito : rbrito@ime.usp.br : http://www.ime.usp.br/~rbrito
Homepage of the algorithms package : http://algorithms.berlios.de
Homepage on freshmeat: http://freshmeat.net/projects/algorithms/
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