Re: [PATCH] clone: Warn if LICENSE or COPYING file lacking and !clone.skiplicensecheck

From: Johannes Sixt <j6t@kdbg.org>
Date: Mar 22, 2015, 08:23 UTC
Message-ID: <550E7C05.4060603@kdbg.org>
In-Reply-To: <E1YZTZI-0002QE-3r@rmm6prod02.runbox.com>

Am 22.03.2015 um 01:16 schrieb David A. Wheeler:

Show 14 quoted lines

> Warn cloners if there is no LICENSE* or COPYING* file that makes
> the license clear.  This is a useful warning, because if there is
> no license somewhere, then local copyright laws (which forbid many uses)
> and terms of service apply - and the cloner may not be expecting that.
> Many projects accidentally omit a license, so this is common enough to note.
>
> You can disable this warning by setting "clone.skiplicensecheck" to "true".
>
> For more info on the issue, feel free to see:
> http://choosealicense.com/no-license/
> http://www.wired.com/2013/07/github-licenses/
> https://twitter.com/stephenrwalli/status/247597785069789184
>
> Signed-off-by: David A. Wheeler <dwheeler@dwheeler.com>

The opt-out works only when placed in the system-wide or user configuration. That places a maintenance burden on *ALL* existing installations that do not want the warning.

If you really want to hard-code such a policy decision into Git, then make it an opt-in so that members of the license squad can enable it.

I don't need it.

-- Hannes