Re: [Groff] Trying to understand groff development and release model

[Werner LEMBERG]

> Basically what is needed is to upgrade all the source headers from
> GPL2 to the following text:
> 
>     This file is part of groff.
> 
>     groff is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it
>     under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published
>     by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the
>     License, or (at your option) any later version.
> 
>     groff 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 for more details.
> 
>     You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public
>     License along with groff.  If not, see
>     <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.

Yes, I think so.  Further guidance can be found here:

  http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-howto.html

Note that the postal address of the FSF, the copyright holder of
groff, has changed too, IIRC.

> So basically I need to rip out the GPL2 part and puts this one in
> place in each and every source file, and then just include the basic
> LICENSE and COPYING files from gplv3?

Yes, all files which have a GPL text should be updated.  Some files
have a more permissive license (see file LICENSES) and should be not
changed.  It's probably easiest if you don't add new copyright
notices, just replacing existing v2 notices with the v3 text.

> Shouldn't all prior contributors to groff also approve before their
> code is relicensed, or is this handled by the existing sentence
> saying "GPLv2 or later" in current source code?

This is not necessary since all contributors have assigned the
copyright to the FSF, and the FSF wants all GNU projects be updated.

> I downloaded the -current tarball and will base my changes on that
> one. How would you prefer me to submit those changes?

Please use

  diff -aru <olddir> <newdir>

> Just wanted confirmation before I start so I don't waste a lot of
> mine and your time.

Thanks a lot in advance!


    Werner