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Re: [PATCH] memset: also update copyright years


On Mon, Apr 9, 2012 at 6:37 PM, Paul Eggert <eggert@cs.ucla.edu> wrote:
> On 04/09/2012 01:03 PM, Carlos O'Donell wrote:
>> The question is: Are you allowed to collapse the years if those years
>> listed in the source file are *not* contiguous? I know the answer is
>> yes, but extracting that realization from the text is difficult
>> because no such example is given.
>
> It makes sense to add that to the example; please see below.

Thank you.

>> The same goes for the README text
>> which is equally broad.
>
> That's a glibc matter, not a GNU coding standards matter, so it's
> a separable issue. ?I just now looked at the glibc README and
> don't see the confusion there, but perhaps the proposed change below
> would suffice to clarify the README as well.

Agreed,

We explain this in detail in our contribution checklist:
http://sourceware.org/glibc/wiki/Contribution%20checklist#Update_Copyright_Information

>> Add text to explain when it's *not* OK to do non-consecutive year
>> merging
>
> The current text says "if and only if", which means that collapsing
> is not OK when conditions (1) and (2) are not met. ?But again, perhaps
> changing the example, and clarifying what "copyrightable year" means,
> should suffice.
>
> Here's the proposed change to maintain.texi.
>
> --- maintain.texi.~1.217.~ ? ? ?2012-04-09 10:53:21.000000000 -0700
> +++ maintain.texi ? ? ? 2012-04-09 15:29:45.970355411 -0700
> @@ -656,10 +656,11 @@ translations may use C-in-a-circle in lo
> ?known to work. ?Alternatively, the @samp{(C)} or C-in-a-circle can be
> ?omitted entirely; the word @samp{Copyright} suffices.
>
> -To update the list of year numbers, add each year in which you have
> -made nontrivial changes to the package. ?(Here we assume you're using
> +To update the list of year numbers, add each @dfn{copyrightable year},
> +i.e., each year in which you have
> +published nontrivial changes to the package. ?Typically you're using
> ?a publicly accessible revision control server, so that every revision
> -installed is also immediately and automatically published.) ?When you
> +installed is also immediately and automatically published. ?When you
> ?add the new year, it is not required to keep track of which files have
> ?seen significant changes in the new year and which have not. ?It is
> ?recommended and simpler to add the new year to all files in the
> @@ -671,9 +672,10 @@ domain, if the movie companies don't con
> ?extend copyright. ?If you copy a file into the package from some other
> ?program, keep the copyright years that come with the file.
>
> -You can use a range (@samp{2008-2010}) instead of listing individual
> -years (@samp{2008, 2009, 2010}) if and only if: 1)@tie{}every year in
> -the range, inclusive, really is a ``copyrightable'' year that would be
> +Ranges can appear in year lists (@samp{2008, 2010-2012}) instead of

I think we need to make it *really* clear that you can collapse the
entire range if that's what your project wants to do (and in fact gdb
and glibc are doing it now).

`Ranges can appear in year lists (@samp{2008, 2010-2012}, or
@samp{2008-2012}) instead of'

> +listing individual years (@samp{2008, 2010, 2011, 2012}) if and only
> +if: 1)@tie{}every year in
> +the range, inclusive, really is a copyrightable year that would be

Is it right to say `that would be?'

In the case of glibc we *could* add copyright years to all the files
for every copyrightable year, but we don't, and at present we collapse
the year ranges from 1991 to the present when we touch a file.

> ?listed individually; @emph{and} 2)@tie{}you make an explicit statement
> ?in a @file{README} file about this usage.

Cheers,
Carlos.


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