Re: [gentoo-dev] AUTHORS file for portage repository

[Rich Freeman]

On Tue, Nov 27, 2018 at 2:58 PM Matt Turner <mattst88@g.o> wrote:
>
> What Copyright-owner header are you talking about?

We would create one, just as we've created bugzilla tags in git for
closing bugs/etc.  Surely putting one line in a commit is no more
difficult than putting one file in a repository?  Indeed anybody can
start sticking such a tag in commits today without any involvement
from anybody else.

> You've been the
> most outspoken opponent of using what appears to be the standard
> attribution form specified in GLEP-76

When have I been opposed to anything in GLEP 76?  I'll admit that I
don't 100% agree with everything in there, but I'm fine with following
the GLEP as it is written.  Multi-line copyright notices aren't in
there, and the intent was never to be accumulating copyright holders
on the single notice line.  An authors file was a compromise I wasn't
a huge fan of, but I'm suggesting that if we have one it ought to be
auto-generated (presumably with the work being done by somebody who
actually wants the file to be there).

Also, GLEP 76 as it is written says: "Projects using this scheme must
track authorship in a VCS, unless they list all authors of
copyrightable contributions in an AUTHORS file."

So, a VCS is the PREFERRED way of doing it.  The alternative is
listing ALL authors in the authors file.  Right now it seems like
people are advocating for only listing some authors.

> I know mailing list debates are your personal pastime but this is a
> real wasteoftime.

You're the one advocating for changing the status quo.  I'm happy if
we drop the whole topic entirely.  You certainly can't point fingers
at others when you're proposing doing something differently.  We
wouldn't be having this discussion if some contributors were unwilling
to contribute under our current standards.

-- 
Rich