[gentoo-user] On ebuild files owership

[gentoo-user] On ebuild files owership

[Alexander Kurakin]

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Good day!
 
In the `::gentoo` repository, the header/copyright line is fixed [1]:
 
> All ebuilds committed to the tree should have a two line header immediately at the start
> indicating copyright, followed by an empty line. This must be an exact copy of the contents
> of header.txt [2] in the top directory of the Gentoo repository.
> 
> > # Copyright 1999-2024 Gentoo Authors
> > # Distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License v2
 
Also, there are the `pkgcheck`’s `InvalidCopyright` [3] and `NonGentooAuthorsCopyright` [4] checks.
 
So, the `::gentoo` ebuild file MUST be owned by `Gentoo Authors`.
 
But what if the ebuild file is placed outside o `::gentoo` AND
A-case. isn’t derived from any of `::gentoo` ebuild files;
B-case. is a modification of some `::gentoo` ebuild file
?
 
My guess on the ownership is:
A. `Me`;
B. `Gentoo Authors and Me`.
(And I guess I’m able to transfer my rights to the `Gentoo Authors` completely in both cases.)
 
Am I correct?
 
Thanks.
 
Sincerely,
Alexander Kurakin.
 
--
 
1:  https://devmanual.gentoo.org/ebuild-writing/file-format/index.html#ebuild-header
2:  https://gitweb.gentoo.org/repo/gentoo.git/tree/header.txt
3:  https://pkgcore.github.io/pkgcheck/man/pkgcheck.html#invalidcopyright
4:  https://pkgcore.github.io/pkgcheck/man/pkgcheck.html#nongentooauthorscopyright

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Re: [gentoo-user] On ebuild files owership

[Bryan Gardiner]

Hi Alexander,

My two cents as a third-party overlay maintainer.

On Tue, 28 Jan 2025 16:34:39 +0300
Alexander Kurakin <kuraga333@mail.ru> wrote:

> Good day!
>  
> In the `::gentoo` repository, the header/copyright line is fixed [1]:
>  
> > All ebuilds committed to the tree should have a two line header
> >immediately at the start indicating copyright, followed by an empty
> >line. This must be an exact copy of the contents of header.txt [2]
> >in the top directory of the Gentoo repository. 
> > > # Copyright 1999-2024 Gentoo Authors
> > > # Distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License
> >v2  
>  
> Also, there are the `pkgcheck`’s `InvalidCopyright` [3] and
> `NonGentooAuthorsCopyright` [4] checks. 
> So, the `::gentoo` ebuild file MUST be owned by `Gentoo Authors`.
>  
> But what if the ebuild file is placed outside o `::gentoo` AND
> A-case. isn’t derived from any of `::gentoo` ebuild files;
> B-case. is a modification of some `::gentoo` ebuild file
> ?
>  
> My guess on the ownership is:
> A. `Me`;
> B. `Gentoo Authors and Me`.
> (And I guess I’m able to transfer my rights to the `Gentoo Authors`
> completely in both cases.) 
> Am I correct?

That is what I do.  I preserve any existing copyright statement when I
import an ebuild from elsewhere, and I add a copyright line for myself
too once I've made significant changes.  Those are two separate
copyright statements, because the years in the Gentoo line are almost
always not the same as the years I've modified the file.  And for my
own ebuilds I only have a copyright line for myself.

I think the simplified attribution with "Gentoo Authors" can make it
hard to find the original authors of ebuilds once they've been copied
between repositories, because it requires digging to find which
repository it came from (hopefully that was recorded somewhere),
pulling that repo down (gentoo.git is big), then looking up the
authors there.  So that's why I personally bother to use a separate
copyright line.

Also, have you seen GLEP 76, the official Gentoo copyright policy?  It
goes over this topic:

https://www.gentoo.org/glep/glep-0076.html

Cheers,
Bryan

> Thanks.
>  
> Sincerely,
> Alexander Kurakin.
>  
> --
>  
> 1:
>  https://devmanual.gentoo.org/ebuild-writing/file-format/index.html#ebuild-header 2:  https://gitweb.gentoo.org/repo/gentoo.git/tree/header.txt
> 3:
>  https://pkgcore.github.io/pkgcheck/man/pkgcheck.html#invalidcopyright 4:  https://pkgcore.github.io/pkgcheck/man/pkgcheck.html#nongentooauthorscopyright

[gentoo-user] Re: [gentoo-user] On ebuild files owership

[Alexander Kurakin]

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> Hi Alexander,
> 
> My two cents as a third-party overlay maintainer.
 
Hi Bryan,
thanks for the reply!
 
> That is what I do.  I preserve any existing copyright statement when I
> import an ebuild from elsewhere, and I add a copyright line for myself
> too once I've made significant changes.  Those are two separate
> copyright statements, because the years in the Gentoo line are almost
> always not the same as the years I've modified the file.  And for my
> own ebuilds I only have a copyright line for myself.
 
Understood, thanks! Yes,
 
> <copyright> := <statement>[, <statement>, ...]
> <statement> := <date> <author(s)>
 
so you/we have one line but two statements in the copyright :)
 
> 
> I think the simplified attribution with "Gentoo Authors" can make it
> hard to find the original authors of ebuilds once they've been copied
> between repositories, because it requires digging to find which
> repository it came from (hopefully that was recorded somewhere),
> pulling that repo down (gentoo.git is big), then looking up the
> authors there.  So that's why I personally bother to use a separate
> copyright line.
 
Totally agree!
 
> 
> Also, have you seen GLEP 76, the official Gentoo copyright policy?  It
> goes over this topic:
> 
> https://www.gentoo.org/glep/glep-0076.html
> 
 
Yes, thanks, but
 
> This GLEP introduces a copyright and licensing policy for Gentoo projects.
 
We’re taking about ebuilds outside of the Gentoo projects, aren’t we?
 
> Cheers,
> Bryan
> 
 
Sincerely,
Alexander Kurakin.

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Re: [gentoo-user] On ebuild files owership

[Bryan Gardiner]

On Thu, 30 Jan 2025 18:44:18 +0300
Alexander Kurakin <kuraga333@mail.ru> wrote:

> > Hi Alexander,
> >
> > My two cents as a third-party overlay maintainer.
>  
> Hi Bryan,
> thanks for the reply!
>  
> > That is what I do.  I preserve any existing copyright statement
> > when I import an ebuild from elsewhere, and I add a copyright line
> > for myself too once I've made significant changes.  Those are two
> > separate copyright statements, because the years in the Gentoo line
> > are almost always not the same as the years I've modified the file.
> >  And for my own ebuilds I only have a copyright line for myself.
>  
> Understood, thanks! Yes,
>  
> > <copyright> := <statement>[, <statement>, ...]
> > <statement> := <date> <author(s)>
>  
> so you/we have one line but two statements in the copyright :)

I misspoke a bit with my "because" above, I leave it as two lines for
two separate entities; that's what feels most readable to me.  For
example:

# Copyright 1999-2021 Gentoo Authors
# Copyright 2023 Bryan Gardiner <bog@khumba.net>
# Distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License v2

> > Also, have you seen GLEP 76, the official Gentoo copyright policy?
> > It goes over this topic:
> > 
> > https://www.gentoo.org/glep/glep-0076.html
>  
> Yes, thanks, but
>  
> > This GLEP introduces a copyright and licensing policy for Gentoo
> > projects.
>  
> We’re taking about ebuilds outside of the Gentoo projects, aren’t we?

Yes that's true, this doesn't apply in our case.  Just wanted to
provide some more detail about Gentoo's policies.

Cheers,
Bryan