Mercurial > emacs
annotate admin/notes/years @ 75349:082adf35d366
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author | Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> |
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date | Sun, 21 Jan 2007 06:36:25 +0000 |
parents | 04d493c77655 |
children | 4fca1052121f |
rev | line source |
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1 How to Maintain Copyright Years for GNU Emacs |
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3 | |
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4 "Our lawyer says it is ok if we add, to each file that has been in Emacs |
75251 | 5 since Emacs 21 came out in 2001, all the subsequent years[1]. We don't |
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6 need to check whether *that file* was changed in those years. |
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7 It's sufficient that *Emacs* was changed in those years (and it was!). |
62697 | 8 |
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9 For those files that have been added since then, we should add |
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10 the year it was added to Emacs, and all subsequent years." |
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11 |
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12 --RMS, 2005-07-13 |
62697 | 13 |
75251 | 14 [1] Note that this includes 2001 - see |
15 <http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-pretest-bug/2006-12/msg00119.html> | |
16 | |
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18 For the refcards under etc/, it's ok to simply use the latest year |
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19 (typically in a `\def\year{YEAR}' expression) for the rendered copyright |
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20 notice, while maintaining the full list of years in the copyright notice |
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21 in the comments. |
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22 |
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23 |
75251 | 24 Please fix or report any non-trivial files that have "odd" copyright |
25 notices. This includes missing copyright notices, and copyright | |
26 holders other than FSF (or AIST in some cases). In most cases, | |
27 individual authors should not appear in copyright statements. Either | |
28 the copyright has been assigned (check copyright.list) to the FSF (in | |
29 which case the original author should be removed and the year(s) | |
30 transferred to the FSF); or else it is possible the file should not be | |
31 in Emacs at all (please report!). | |
32 | |
75344 | 33 When updating the copyright in a file (eg a .tex file) that generates |
34 another file distributed with Emacs, don't forget to check in a | |
35 regenerated version of the target file. | |
75251 | 36 |
75345 | 37 For auto-generated files (eg ldefs-boot.el), RMS says (20061211, |
38 private mail): "Since they are automatically generated, it doesn't | |
39 really matter what they say." | |
40 | |
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41 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
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42 |
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43 |
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44 Following is the policy that we tried to write down one time (mid 2005). |
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45 Although it is incorrect, we keep it around to remind us how complicated |
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46 things used to be (and may become in the future). |
62464 | 47 |
48 | |
49 Principle: Individual files need to have the year of the release | |
50 in the copyright notice if there is significant change. | |
51 | |
52 | |
53 Practice: | |
54 | |
55 - individual files | |
56 - each must be examined, along w/ its history, by a human | |
57 - automated tools facilitate but can never replace this process | |
58 | |
59 - year of the release | |
60 - may be different from year of file introduction, | |
61 or year of last significant change | |
62 - sometimes the release year slips, leaving a file w/ prematurely | |
63 marked release year => need update (e.g., s/2004/2005/ for Emacs 22) | |
64 - intervening years (between releases) are not valid and may cause | |
65 embarrassment later in case of dispute => remove (however, see next) | |
66 - years for new files (merged, contributed) that have been separately | |
67 published are valid even if between releases => leave alone | |
68 | |
69 - significant change | |
70 - insignificant | |
71 - whitespace | |
72 - copyright notice | |
73 - version control tags | |
74 - simple var/func renaming | |
75 - in-file reorganization/reordering | |
76 - typos | |
77 - small bugfixes | |
78 - small docfixes | |
79 - filename renaming | |
80 - most everything else is significant | |
81 - change to interface | |
82 - change in functionality | |
83 - new file | |
84 - many small changes may be significant in aggregate | |
85 | |
86 - when in doubt, ask (and update these guidelines -- thanks!) | |
87 | |
88 - sometimes people make mistakes | |
89 - if they have not read these guidelines, point them here | |
90 - if the guidelines are not helpful, improve the guidelines |