GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 727237
Correct LGPL license information in sources
Last modified: 2014-04-14 06:43:24 UTC
This was spotted by a member of the Debian ftpmaster team. Some files (e.g. camel-subscribable.[ch]) mention both the GNU LGPL and the GNU GPL, which is quite confusing: /* * camel-subscribable.c * * This library is free software you can redistribute it and/or modify it * under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ That's LGPL * the Free Software Foundation. * * This library is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but * WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY * or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ That's GPL * for more details. * * You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public License ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ That's LGPL * along with this library; if not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>. * */
Thanks for a bug report. I'd not say "some files", it's basically all files. Grepping the source code for "GNU General Public License" gives 715 hits, and grepping it for "GNU Lesser General Public License" gives 1427 hits. Most of the licenses look like that yours quoted example above, once GPL references, twice LGPL, but obviously with minor exceptions (about three files). I'll make it to reference the LGPL where GPL is referenced and commit it to master sources (let's not do it in the stable releases, it was this way for several years anyway).
I fixed the license information in sources with commit [1], which is for 3.13.1+. I also added license information to source files where it was missing and changed the way the license block is organized. All the sources' license information comments follow the same pattern: /* [ Optional short file description ] * * [ Optional copyright notices] * * License information block * * [ Optional 'Authors:' section ] */ The LGPL is references consistently now; source files with main() function, like tests or D-Bus services, use 'program' in the license information block, while the other sources use 'library' word. [1] https://git.gnome.org/browse/evolution-data-server/commit/?id=36846c1