Automake and GPLv3 (was: GNU uploads frozen for GPLv3 release)

[Ralf Wildenhues]

[ Please remove the autoconf-patches list from followups, thanks ]

Hello Bruce, all,

* Bruce Korb wrote on Thu, Jun 28, 2007 at 06:36:14PM CEST:
> 
> I still think it a _really_good_idea_ to try to get a pre-release
> of autoconf today that will auto-install the COPYING file for
> most of us folks.  Works that way for both of my projects....
> It would require manual intervention to force a different
> COPYING file without such a release.

I think you mean automake, as that's the autotools program that installs
auxiliary files for your project, rather than autoconf.  FWIW, I think
this is a good idea, for new projects.  Note that automake will not
overwrite an existing COPYING file, not even with --force; and this is
intentional.  So you would have to remove the file first.

However, the current Automake maintainer has very little time, and my
time is rather finite, too.  I can work to get branch-1-10 into shape
for 1.10.1, but I suppose it will take some days -- one necessary step
of which will be to move the Automake code itself to GPLv3+ plus
exceptions as the current code: the files which are copied into user
projects have this additional clause:

# As a special exception to the GNU General Public License, if you
# distribute this file as part of a program that contains a
# configuration script generated by Autoconf, you may include it under
# the same distribution terms that you use for the rest of that program.

Can this be left as-is for GPLv3 or does it need to be adjusted?
For a full example, see
<http://sources.redhat.com/cgi-bin/cvsweb.cgi/automake/lib/depcomp?rev=1.61&content-type=text/x-cvsweb-markup&cvsroot=automake>

AFAICS the m4 snippets that end up in configure scripts are
all-permissive like Autoconf's products, so there is little that would
need to be adjusted.


And with this work done, I would need someone to do the release for me,
or permission to do so, as I do not have maintainer status for Automake
(and while I try to help where I can, I don't think I'll have enough
time to be a responsible maintainer).

Cheers,
Ralf