Patch #40202
closedAdd LICENSE.txt in the root directory
Description
Currently, the COPYING file which describes the license of Redmine is placed under the doc directory. This placement might not be immediately obvious to people.
I propose the addition of a short license file, named LICENSE.txt, to the root directory. This file briefly states that Redmine is licensed under the GNU General Public License version 2 (GPLv2) and the full license text can be found in the doc directory.
This approach has several benefits:
- It makes it easier for people to find and understand the licensing information at a glance
- GitHub will automatically detect the presence of the LICENSE.txt file and display a link to it in the repository's sidebar
- It aligns with the common practice among open-source projects to include licensing information in the root directory
Files
Related issues
Updated by Go MAEDA 7 months ago
- Related to Defect #40189: about packaging and distribution on fedora added
Updated by Holger Just 7 months ago
- Related to Patch #40043: Remove year ranges from all copyright headers added
Updated by Holger Just 7 months ago
Note that in each file header, we currently specify the following:
# This program 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 2 # of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
As such, Redmine is licensed under the GPL 2.0 or any later version, currently either GPLv2 or GPLv3. This distinction should not (and can not easily) be removed as it would require the consent of all contributors (which can not be easily obtained).
As such, I'd rather propose to add the text from the current file headers to the new LICENSE.TXT file, e.g. the following slightly adapted text as a combination of your proposal with the existing text from all our file headers:
Redmine - project management software Copyright (C) Jean-Philippe Lang This program 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 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. This program 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. For the full text of the license, please see the `COPYING` file located in the `doc` directory. You can also find the full text of the GPL version 2 at the Free Software Foundation's website at https://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0.en.html or by writing to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA.
Updated by Go MAEDA 7 months ago
- File 40202-v2.patch 40202-v2.patch added
Holger Just wrote in #note-3:
As such, I'd rather propose to add the text from the current file headers to the new LICENSE.TXT file, e.g. the following slightly adapted text as a combination of your proposal with the existing text from all our file headers:
Thank you, I have updated the patch.