Re: [Xenomai] License Issues

[Leopold Palomo-Avellaneda <leo@alaxarxa.net>]

Hi,


I leave my desktop a few minutes and I got this bunch of messages!!!!

El Dijous, 18 de juny de 2015, a les 08:59:25, Jan Kiszka va escriure:
> On 2015-06-17 23:35, Leopold Palomo-Avellaneda wrote:
> > El Dimecres, 17 de juny de 2015, a les 19:25:56, Gilles Chanteperdrix va
> > 
> > escriure:
> >> Leopold Palomo-Avellaneda wrote:
> >>> Hi,
> >>> 
> >>> using a debian tool to check the license of the package I have found
> >>> that
> >>> his
> >> 
> >>> files:
> >> This mail looks very different from the one you sent me privately and I
> >> told you to post on the list. It does not even concern the same version
> >> of
> >> Xenomai.
> > 
> > yes,
> > 
> > it's true. But what I understood from you was that it was better that I
> > sent to the list. That file comes from xenomai-2.6.4. Any problem then?
> > 
> > I just need to clarify this kind of things because ftp-masters are every
> > day more strict (what I think it's better), especially with licenses.
> > Never happens nothing till the day that something happen.
> 
> Out of curiosity: How do these license check work right now? What's the
> tool used and how are the outputs processed (manual or automatic
> decisions etc.)?

I use debmake [1] (debmake -ccc). I normally create a debian package from 
zero, using some templates of similar from packages. The job that makes me 
spend more time is the copyright file and make it almost lintian [2] clean. I 
have attached the files generated. Anyway, debmake makes a good job.

The copyright file, in the format:
http://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/copyright-format/1.0/

has some fields. Basically, you must put, after the header:

Files: (which files)
Copyright: (who holds the copyright. Take note that not the author. Many 
times, you could have an author that work for a company and the copyright 
belongs to the company)
License: (a key of the license) [3]

It helps me to fill the final copyright file. For instance, I know that the 
doc directory is GFDL-1.2 (at least it was on 2.6.3), so all the references to 
doc/* I put then under Files: doc/* manually.

Also, there are cases that for instance the tool show:

Files:     ksrc/drivers/analogy/national_instruments/mio_common.c
Copyright: 1997-2001 David A. Schleef <ds@schleef.org>
           2002-2006 Frank Mori Hess <fmhess@users.sourceforge.net>
License:   __UNKNOWN__
 This code is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published
 by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License,
 or (at your option) any later version.


the tool mark that files as __UNKNOWN__, but in the body of the license you 
can read that it's GPL-2.0+

Obviously, edit all that files and put the same header, format, whatever will 
help. It's a manual, tedious and boring job. 


> 
> > If can check this kind of stuff it would be better, that's all. For
> > instance, I was a bit surprised about the autotools generated files,
> > because I thought they would never had license.
> 
> If something has no license, it cannot be used. IIRC, you can freely
> choose the license of the generated autotools files, but you should
> state at least something somewhere to avoid needless confusion for
> people who validate the licenses of projects (AKA license clearing process).
> 
> Given that tool-based license analysis often looks at individual files
> only, a license header for those that lack a note would be the optimal
> resolution. The minimum - and likely the only option for generated files
> - is to define a default license for Xenomai that covers all files not
> explicitly carrying a note or not being covered by a subdir COPYING file.
> 
> Did you also look at Xenomai 3 already in this regard, Leopold?

Yes, I put both files from xenomai-3 git and xenomai-2.6 git.

I know that is a lot of disgusting work, to check all the files, see the 
header, or whatever, but, at least for xenomai-3 could be good.

Another thing could be write a file explaining every directory license. I 
think that the kernel patches are GPL-2.0 but the library are LGPL2.1, but I 
don't know which directories are from one or other, of if they are mixed. In 
xenomai-2.6 is not done.

In Xenomai-3, the web says:
"For information regarding a particular software component, you should look at 
the COPYING file available in the directory containing the relevant source 
code."

but:

$../xenomai-3.git$ ls
config   demo  include  lib README   testsuite configure.ac debian                     
doc   kernel   Makefile.am  scripts  utils

$../xenomai-3.git$ tree -fia | grep COPYING
./include/COPYING
./kernel/cobalt/COPYING
./kernel/cobalt/posix/COPYING
./kernel/cobalt/rtdm/COPYING
./lib/alchemy/COPYING
./lib/analogy/COPYING
./lib/cobalt/COPYING
./lib/copperplate/COPYING
./lib/psos/COPYING
./lib/vxworks/COPYING

doc, config, utils, scripts, testsuite, debian* and demo directories have not 
COPYING files.

I have admit that I began to work with 2.6.4, but looking this it seems more 
easy (in license terms) to manage this issue with xenomai-3. :-) (And no 
Gilles, it's not a waste of time. A lot of people use 2.6.x, like me for 
instance)

Best regards,

Leopold

[1] http://anonscm.debian.org/cgit/collab-maint/debmake.git
[2] Lintian is a tool used to check the quality of a debian package. It try to 
make it following all the debian policies.
[3] https://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/copyright-format/1.0/#stand-alone-license-paragraph


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