[Maria-developers] [Otto Kekäläinen] Fwd: initial feedback on mariadb
Hi, Otto asked for help with the copyright file for the Debian MariaDB packages. As I understand it, the .deb packages have a file /usr/share/doc/mariadb-server-5.5/copyright and there are some scripts in Debian that check the file against what is in the headers of source files and possibly other checks (error output attached below). Otto did something, but there is apparently more needed. Can some of you who understand the finer points of licensing among Oracle, Monty Program, MariaDB Services, MariaDB foundation, Percona, ... please look into this and help Otto fix up things? Debian are usually very careful with licensing, so this could easily become a blocker otherwise (I assume). - Kristian.
Hi, Kristian! On Aug 16, Kristian Nielsen wrote:
Hi,
Otto asked for help with the copyright file for the Debian MariaDB packages.
As I understand it, the .deb packages have a file
/usr/share/doc/mariadb-server-5.5/copyright
and there are some scripts in Debian that check the file against what is in the headers of source files and possibly other checks (error output attached below).
Otto did something, but there is apparently more needed.
Can some of you who understand the finer points of licensing among Oracle, Monty Program, MariaDB Services, MariaDB foundation, Percona, ... please look into this and help Otto fix up things? Debian are usually very careful with licensing, so this could easily become a blocker otherwise (I assume).
I'd say, let us treat the copyright headers in source files as the authoritative source. Then the debian copyright file should simply say exactly what copyright comments do. And there will be no mismatch between them. And Monty Program AB and MariaDB Foundation will be appropriately mentioned, as needed. Regards, Sergei
Sender: otto@seravo.fi From: Otto Kekäläinen <otto@fsfe.org> To: Kristian Nielsen <knielsen@knielsen-hq.org> Subject: Fwd: initial feedback on mariadb Date: Fri, 16 Aug 2013 11:56:41 +0300
Hello Kristian,
Please note the feedback from Nicolas below.
In commit https://github.com/ottok/pkg-mariadb/commit/90d63b0348a960ca1a119e8961784e3d... I did what I could, but I suspect the file is too much inclined towards Oracle as the old debian/copyright didn't have any MariaDB/Monty Program etc mentions I could have copied over. Could you insert mentions of MariaDB Foundation, Monty Program AB etc in appropriate places, following the new format?
Also you could check the output of licensecheck and consult with you project if all copyright headers are correct in upstream sources.
Thanks for your help!
2013/8/18 Sergei Golubchik <serg@mariadb.org>:
I'd say, let us treat the copyright headers in source files as the authoritative source. Then the debian copyright file should simply say exactly what copyright comments do. And there will be no mismatch between them. And Monty Program AB and MariaDB Foundation will be appropriately mentioned, as needed.
Ok, I used checklicense and licence-reconcile to mass-review the headers in the sources and updated manually most parts of the debian/copyright. By the way, there are many minor issues reported by licensecheck, you might want to review at some time and fix upstream: http://labs.seravo.fi/~otto/mariadb-repo/licensecheck-report.txt Examples: include/mysqld_default_groups.h: *No copyright* UNKNOWN => If feasible, all files should have copyright holder and license info in their headers. plugin/handler_socket/libhsclient/auto_addrinfo.hpp: UNKNOWN [Copyright: 2010 DeNA Co.,Ltd.. All rights reserved] => Some files have copyright, but no license info in the header. mysys/my_create.c: GPL (v2) [Copyright: 2000, 2001, 2005-2008 MySQL AB, 2009 Sun Microsystems, Inc] => There should be only one copyright per line (not on same line), e.g.: Copyright (c) 2000, 2001, 2005-2008 MySQL AB Copyright (c) 2009 Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Hi!
"Otto" == Otto Kekäläinen <otto@fsfe.org> writes:
Otto> 2013/8/18 Sergei Golubchik <serg@mariadb.org>:
I'd say, let us treat the copyright headers in source files as the authoritative source. Then the debian copyright file should simply say exactly what copyright comments do. And there will be no mismatch between them. And Monty Program AB and MariaDB Foundation will be appropriately mentioned, as needed.
Otto> Ok, I used checklicense and licence-reconcile to mass-review the Otto> headers in the sources and updated manually most parts of the Otto> debian/copyright. Otto> By the way, there are many minor issues reported by licensecheck, you Otto> might want to review at some time and fix upstream: Otto> http://labs.seravo.fi/~otto/mariadb-repo/licensecheck-report.txt Otto> Examples: Otto> include/mysqld_default_groups.h: *No copyright* UNKNOWN Otto> => If feasible, all files should have copyright holder and license Otto> info in their headers. That we can fix. Otto> plugin/handler_socket/libhsclient/auto_addrinfo.hpp: UNKNOWN Otto> [Copyright: 2010 DeNA Co.,Ltd.. All rights reserved] Otto> => Some files have copyright, but no license info in the header. This is the original external files we are using. handlersocket has the copyright information in the COPYRIGHT.txt file. We can of course change the files, but it doesn't feel right to change the files as this will make it harder for the original owner of the code to change the copyright for his code. Doesn't Debian allow one to refer to a copyright file in the header? Otto> mysys/my_create.c: GPL (v2) Otto> [Copyright: 2000, 2001, 2005-2008 MySQL AB, 2009 Sun Microsystems, Inc] Otto> => There should be only one copyright per line (not on same line), e.g.: Otto> Copyright (c) 2000, 2001, 2005-2008 MySQL AB Otto> Copyright (c) 2009 Sun Microsystems, Inc. This we can fix too. Otto, can you work with Jani to get all these fixed ? Jani, is there any chance you can get this fixed this week? Regards, Monty
Hello, 2013/8/20 Michael Widenius <monty@askmonty.org>:
Otto> plugin/handler_socket/libhsclient/auto_addrinfo.hpp: UNKNOWN Otto> [Copyright: 2010 DeNA Co.,Ltd.. All rights reserved]
Otto> => Some files have copyright, but no license info in the header.
This is the original external files we are using. handlersocket has the copyright information in the COPYRIGHT.txt file.
We can of course change the files, but it doesn't feel right to change the files as this will make it harder for the original owner of the code to change the copyright for his code.
Doesn't Debian allow one to refer to a copyright file in the header?
Yes, there is actually no hard requirement anywhere the licensecheck must find copyright/lisence for everything. Copyright can be also declared per project/directory with COPYRIGHT/COPYING/LICENSE files. Licensecheck is only there to facilitate automatic checking and the future might autogenerate the debian/copyright file contents. (https://github.com/ottok/pkg-mariadb/blob/master/debian/copyright)
Otto> mysys/my_create.c: GPL (v2) Otto> [Copyright: 2000, 2001, 2005-2008 MySQL AB, 2009 Sun Microsystems, Inc]
Otto> => There should be only one copyright per line (not on same line), e.g.: Otto> Copyright (c) 2000, 2001, 2005-2008 MySQL AB Otto> Copyright (c) 2009 Sun Microsystems, Inc.
This we can fix too.
Otto, can you work with Jani to get all these fixed ? Jani, is there any chance you can get this fixed this week?
JanI: all you need to do is review the listing in file: http://labs.seravo.fi/~otto/mariadb-repo/licensecheck-report.txt But I don't think this will be of any obstacle to Debian packaging, as I already did the debian/copyright file manually. But over time you might want to take this into account upstream (there is no need to get it fixed this week for my part). Tools like licensecheck and fossology will work better, and it might help automation somewhere else too. Thanks!
participants (4)
-
Kristian Nielsen -
Michael Widenius -
Otto Kekäläinen -
Sergei Golubchik