Open Stack

On Tue, May 14, 2013 at 12:25 PM, Thierry Carrez <thierry at openstack.org>wrote:

> Mark Washenberger wrote:
> > Thanks so much for this link. This page looks like a much better
> > informed way of expressing my viewpoint, which boils down to
> >  1) Copyright headers in source files are not really necessary, and
> > often give an inaccurate view of the provenance of a file.
> >  2) Some folks, like me, find copyright headers in source files tedious
> > to maintain.
> >
> > Unless anyone has a stronger counterpoint to the view Richard has
> > expressed here, I'd like to proceed with plans to stop allowing commits
> > that add new copyright headers to new file additions in Glance (LICENSE
> > file is an obvious exception).
> >
> > - a hacking check that prohibits copyright headers, with exceptions made
> > for all currently existing files
> > - some sort of commit hook or automated process for setting up the
> > static license header in files that are missing the license notice
> > - seek permission from the OpenStack Foundation to move their copyright
> > headers into LICENSE (or remove them entirely)
> > - seek similar permission from other original copyright holders
> >
> > (these last two steps really aren't that crucial, since the goal from my
> > perspective is for folks to stop having to pay attention to copyright
> > headers while coding)
>
> I'm not totally convinced that copyright headers in source files are so
> tedious that it's worth going through a complex transition to get rid of
> maintaining them.
>
> Such transition may be something that is relatively easy to achieve in
> Glance, but I don't see it happening in larger code bases, and I'd
> prefer us to be coherent across all projects when it comes to things
> like file headers.
>

Do we need to force a big transition? The main advantage to me is to stop
devoting any cycles to copyright maintenance. A big OpenStack-wide
transition sounds like adding a lot of cycles.

Rather than bothering with consistent headers, we could have a consistent
policy that says: "Do not add copyright headers to files. Existing
copyright headers are present only as a historical artifact and may be
removed if appropriate permissions are acquired." This policy would fix all
future projects and additions, and current projects with more tractable
problems could clean things up on their own.
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