[TYPO3-core] Move contrib/ out of typo3/

Ernesto Baschny [cron IT] ernst at cron-it.de
Mon Dec 12 10:19:50 CET 2011


Christian Welzel schrieb am 10.12.2011 12:32:

>> If you create a Debian package, can't you just include all relevant
>> licensing information in the debian's "copyright" file? What does it
> 
> Thats what is required by debian policy.
> 
>> matter if typo3/ and typo3/contrib/* has different license files
>> (considering that they are all GPLv2 compatible, of course)? Where does
>> the Debian Policies say that this is not permitted? I have not found
> 
> Its not about permission. Its about clearity.
> 
> There are tools like lintian which can check if every file in the
> packages are matched by an entry in copyright. But these checks are
> always inclusive. I cannot say typo3/* is GPL and typo3/contrib/* is
> not. The typo3/* line would also match typo3/contrib/*. So i have to
> include all single GPL files in typo3/ and then define typo3/contrib/
> on its own.

Could you please point me to the exact lintian rule that chokes on this
matter? I skimmed over http://lintian.debian.org/tags-all.html, it
should be listed there, right?

> Even if some human looks into the typo3-tgz he would have some surprise
> when he notices that typo3/contrib/* has diffrent licenses than stated
> in the LICENCE.txt of typo3/.
> Moving contrib/ out of typo3/ would make a clear statement regarding
> licenses and project affiliation of the included files.

Yes it would, but we need *strong* reasons for such a change. One could
also argue that "t3lib" should reside inside "typo3/" or that
"typo3/sysext" should reside on top level. There are tons of stuff that
"could have been done differently".

The main reason for "contrib" to be inside the "typo3/" tree is that
these are components that are used *by the core* itself (the backend),
so they are not optional components that one "might want to use". To me
this is an indication that it technically belongs where it currently is.

And I also know of lots of GPL projects that have "contrib/" folder
"hidden" somewhere in it's hierarchy. Giving a hint about it in a top
level README / LICENSE file would be the best solution in my eyes. To
solve the Debian packaging problem, there might be ways to include a
lintian exception (in /usr/share/lintian/overrides).

Cheers,
Ernesto


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