Does or could git handle file licensing information?

Yohann Ferreira· Sep 5, 2012, 10:51 UTC · lore

Hi everyone,

I don't know whether this question has already been raised, but everything is in the title.

As a day-to-day hard git user ;), I also have to manage files with different licenses I need to track. As git handles all those files in a very smart way, I wondered whether git could also handle that information, at least somehow.

That would greatly make my day, and I do think several other people could have the same need, too.

Do you think this might be relevant?

Best regards,

Yohann

Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason· Sep 5, 2012, 09:17 UTC · re: Yohann Ferreira · lore

Re: Does or could git handle file licensing information?

On Wed, Sep 5, 2012 at 12:51 PM, Yohann Ferreira <yohann.ferreira@orange.fr> wrote:

> As a day-to-day hard git user ;), I also have to manage files with different
> licenses I need to track.
> As git handles all those files in a very smart way, I wondered whether git
> could also handle that information, at least somehow.

Say you have files like:

    main.c
    imglib.c
    config.c

Why not just have these files:

    license-info/GPL
    license-info/SOME-OTHER-LICENSE

Which would contain, respectively:

    main.c
    config.c

And:

    imglib.c

Then just have a script, maybe add it as a hook on your server before it accepts a push which ensures that all files currently in the tree are listed in those license-info/* files.

You could also just add a license header to each of these files, and have a script that ensures that everything has such a header. I think the Debian project has such a script that you could adapt.

Git just tracks files, so just do this in some file-based manner and you'll be fine.