REUSE July 2020

reuse@lists.fsfe.org

5 participants
2 discussions

REUSE.yaml
by Max Mehl 22 Jun '21

22 Jun '21

Hi all, I am starting a new thread, summarising a wild idea we've had when discussing how to combine the different ideas and expectations that have been raised in the threads regarding folder.license files and the deprecation of the DEP5 file. Our suggestion would be to implement a new file: REUSE.yaml. # Basic concept The purpose would be quite similar to what we already do with DEP5 files [^1]: communicate copyright/licensing information for a whole (sub)directory, or also just a certain pattern, e.g. all .png files in a directory. The first downside of DEP5 is that the tags are different from the normal SPDX/REUSE tags, and that it requires some other meta information out of REUSE's scope. The second downside is that the DEP5 file has to be stored in the .reuse/ folder, quite unintuitive and far away from the actual files. As the name suggests, REUSE.yaml would follow the YAML syntax which is easy to read and write for humans, but it also pretty easy to parse in tools. Another difference would be that there could be multiple REUSE.yaml files. Each one could only define the directory it is stored in, or also subdirectories or certain file patterns. So it can also serve as an alternative to the suggested folder.license files. This would make things easier for devs and reusers alike: given that a repo contains a directory with hundreds of binary files (e.g. images), the maintainers could create a REUSE.yaml file in it. This way, copyright and licensing information is close by, but the maintainers would not have to create $file.license files for every single image, or store the bulk-information in a far-away file. # Syntax Now, if we went that route, we would need a rather fool-proof and easy way how to mark the REUSE information for a directory, subdirectory, or pattern. Here are four variants how to do that in YAML, but only one should be mandated by REUSE in the end: 1. Short Array: ``` - src/*: SPDX-FileCopyrightText: [ "2020 me", "© 2017 you" ] SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT ``` 2. Short List: ``` - src/*: SPDX-FileCopyrightText: - 2020 Me - © 2017 You SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT ``` 3. Short String: ``` - src/*: | SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2020 Me SPDX-FileCopyrightText: © 2017 You SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT ``` 4. Long: ``` - src/*: license: SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT copyright: | SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2020 Me SPDX-FileCopyrightText: © 2017 You ``` Please help us here: what could possibly go wrong with any of these variants? Is there tooling for which you know that it would misbehave? What would make most sense to you as a user? Also, in general, I would be pleased to learn what you think about a REUSE.yaml file that would be a preferred way how to bulk-license files. Best, Max [^1]: See the one of reuse-tool here as an example: https://github.com/fsfe/reuse-tool/blob/master/.reuse/dep5 -- Max Mehl - Programme Manager - Free Software Foundation Europe Contact and information: https://fsfe.org/about/mehl | @mxmehl Become a supporter of software freedom: https://fsfe.org/join

6 14

Your input on potential REUSE specification improvements
by Max Mehl 20 Jul '20

20 Jul '20

Dear all, With this thread we would like to open the discussion for a few possible improvements of the REUSE specification (currently v3.0, see repository [^1]). While we did not experience any large failures, there might be spots where some tweaking will make it easier for developers and other compliance efforts to adopt REUSE. I will write a separate email per suggestion and would like to ask you to reply to them individually if you want to provide input to one or multiple suggestions directly. For your convenience, here's an overview: * Support / repurpose central LICENSE file * Introduce folder.license file * Handle copyright and licensing of snippets * Default handling of submodules If you have additional suggestions, please open a separate thread on this mailing list. Please note that all of these are *suggestions* which might be modified or even completely dropped if they are not convincing enough for stakeholders and/or the REUSE team. Your input will be highly appreciated and help us draft an incremental update of the specification. Thank you! Best regards, Max [^1]: https://github.com/fsfe/reuse-docs -- Max Mehl - Programme Manager - Free Software Foundation Europe Contact and information: https://fsfe.org/about/mehl | @mxmehl Become a supporter of software freedom: https://fsfe.org/join

10 27

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

REUSE July 2020