[Fedora-packaging] Duplicate files

[Tom "spot" Callaway]

On 11/11/2009 01:44 AM, Jason L Tibbitts III wrote:
> Seems fine to me as long as we otherwise stick to our prohibition on
> file duplication.  Do we need to somehow define "license files"?  If
> documentation specifies "this is GPL", does that make it a license file?
> Does the presence of a COPYING file change the answer?  (I know, it's a
> relatively pointless question, but I know with certainty that it won't
> be too long before it is asked in a package review.)

I've had the idea for some time that it would be ideal if rpm supported
something like this:

%files
%doc foo bar
%license COPYING

That would make it clear what the license file is, from an RPM
perspective. From a definition perspective, I define a license file as:

"A copy of the legal text which defines the copyright on the work and
the permissions or restrictions placed upon that work by the copyright
holder(s)."

So, COPYING (where COPYING is a copy of the GPLv3 license text) is a
license file. A README.txt which simply says "This code is under GPLv3."
is not a license file.

Worth mentioning in the Licensing guidelines?

~spot