Re: [Savannah-hackers-public] my intro

[Yavor Doganov]

Karl Berry wrote:
> 
> I think COPYING should always be in the source repository and that
> it is a bug that automake inserts it

IMVHO, as far as I have followed Automake lists and the GNU Build
System lists in general, this feature is meant to be just a
convenience for GNU maintainers.  It is not applicable in Automake's
"foreign" mode, and it never overwrites the COPYING file if it already
exists (even with --force and `gnu' strictness).

However, the Sun people complained that various GNOME modules where
inserting GPLv3 as COPYING while they were in fact licensed under
GPLv2+.  As Sun does not yet approve GPLv3 for their OpenSolaris
system, they were unable to ship snapshots of GNOME (well, their
problem, as this feature and its usage have been thoroughly documented
in the Automake manual).  Furthermore, some modules contained the
GPLv3 license while they were not allowed to use it (e.g. external
incompatible libs that the app/lib links against).  In fact the fault
(technically speaking) is in the respective GNOME module maintainers
by not adding the explicit COPYING file in GNOME SVN, or by not using
AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE([foreign]), whatever appropriate.  The guy from Sun
who reported this has filed bugs in the GNOME Bugzilla, so these
modules where fixed subsequently.

I agree 100% that this "convenience" feature as provided by Automake
only leads to problems, and it would be good if they agree to remove
it entirely.

(P.S.  I haven't read bug-automake for about 2 weeks so please forgive
me If I'm saying something that was already said.)