Difference between revisions of "Code Provenance Review"
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# Prepare a list of any external components that are included "in the source tree" for the project. For instance, GDAL includes a copy of libtiff, libjpeg, etc in the source tree. It is necessary to be able to identify things like that in the source tree that are under their own distinct license, and are not explicited vetted by the project team. If practical it is desirable to remove these internal components and treat them as external depenendencies. If kept internal, notes on the licenses of the components should be included in the provenance review document. | # Prepare a list of any external components that are included "in the source tree" for the project. For instance, GDAL includes a copy of libtiff, libjpeg, etc in the source tree. It is necessary to be able to identify things like that in the source tree that are under their own distinct license, and are not explicited vetted by the project team. If practical it is desirable to remove these internal components and treat them as external depenendencies. If kept internal, notes on the licenses of the components should be included in the provenance review document. | ||
| − | # Prepare a list of external dependencies with with potentially problematic license terms. So, all non-free libraries for instance. All libraries with licenses that might conflict (for instance ... | + | # Prepare a list of external dependencies with with potentially problematic license terms. So, all non-free libraries for instance. All libraries with licenses that might conflict (for instance GDAL's use of GPL'ed GRASS libraries in the non-GPL GDAL). |
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| + | == Code Copyright Review == | ||
| + | |||
| + | The objective here is to visit every source file, and identify possible issues, and work to "regularize" things. | ||
| + | |||
| + | # Does the file include the license information? If not, add it if there there is no ambiguity about whether the standard project license applies. If that is not obvious, make notes in the review document. | ||
| + | # Is the file under the normal project license? If not, make notes in the review document. | ||
| + | # Is there anything obviously unusual about the origin of the code? Does this pose any conflicts? Is the issue properly described in the source file? For instance, in GDAL, the gdal/port/cpl_strtod.cpp file is closely derived from external code that was placed in the public domain. cpl_strtod.cpp is placed under the normal GDAL MIT/X license, but detailed notes are kept in the header text on it's origin, the fact that this was public domain and so the fact that we are ok to relicense it. Oddities should be noted in the source file itself and in the review document. | ||
Revision as of 14:05, 26 March 2006
The following are proposed code provenance review steps, but are not approved or authoritative in any way.
Goal
To establish a reasonable comfort level that projects going through incubation do not have improperly contributed code, and that the code is all under the project license.
A code provenance review is desirable because it reduces the risk of the foundation, project developers or software users becoming involved in a legal action or having their use of the software disrupted by sudden removal of improperly contributed code. In particular, many enterprises will not build on open source software projects without some degree of assurance that care is being taken to avoid improper contributions.
It is not the goal to be able to prove that every source file, and every contribution to those files, was contributed properly. The onus is not on us to prove there are no problem. However we want to ensure we do not release code with provenance issues that we could have identified and corrected with a reasonable effort.
Library/Component Review
- Prepare a list of any external components that are included "in the source tree" for the project. For instance, GDAL includes a copy of libtiff, libjpeg, etc in the source tree. It is necessary to be able to identify things like that in the source tree that are under their own distinct license, and are not explicited vetted by the project team. If practical it is desirable to remove these internal components and treat them as external depenendencies. If kept internal, notes on the licenses of the components should be included in the provenance review document.
- Prepare a list of external dependencies with with potentially problematic license terms. So, all non-free libraries for instance. All libraries with licenses that might conflict (for instance GDAL's use of GPL'ed GRASS libraries in the non-GPL GDAL).
Code Copyright Review
The objective here is to visit every source file, and identify possible issues, and work to "regularize" things.
- Does the file include the license information? If not, add it if there there is no ambiguity about whether the standard project license applies. If that is not obvious, make notes in the review document.
- Is the file under the normal project license? If not, make notes in the review document.
- Is there anything obviously unusual about the origin of the code? Does this pose any conflicts? Is the issue properly described in the source file? For instance, in GDAL, the gdal/port/cpl_strtod.cpp file is closely derived from external code that was placed in the public domain. cpl_strtod.cpp is placed under the normal GDAL MIT/X license, but detailed notes are kept in the header text on it's origin, the fact that this was public domain and so the fact that we are ok to relicense it. Oddities should be noted in the source file itself and in the review document.