Installing patches without getting legal papers.

Installing patches without getting legal papers.

[Kim F. Storm]

Some time ago, RMS recommanded to me that when installing _small_
patches received from "external sources" without proper legal papers,
those changes should be marked with "(tiny change)" in the ChangeLog
[in case you want to attribute the change to the person who submitted
the patch].

Recently, a few such patches have been installed in CVS without being
marked with (tiny change).  I don't know whether the people who
submitted those patches have actually signed legal papers, but if not
(or in doubt), I suggest to add that indication.

-- 
Kim F. Storm <storm@cua.dk> http://www.cua.dk

Re: Installing patches without getting legal papers.

[Juanma Barranquero]

On 28 Oct 2002 23:44:36 +0100, storm@cua.dk (Kim F. Storm) wrote:

> Recently, a few such patches have been installed in CVS without being
> marked with (tiny change).

Mea maxima culpa. I didn't know about that recomendation.

> I don't know whether the people who
> submitted those patches have actually signed legal papers, but if not
> (or in doubt), I suggest to add that indication.

Yes. I want to attribute the changes to the authors, but I'll add the
"(tiny change)" mark.

Just a question: how many lines of change are considered "tiny"?


                                                           /L/e/k/t/u

Re: Installing patches without getting legal papers.

[Richard Stallman]

The purpose of "(tiny change)" is to help us keep track of the changes
for which we did not need legal papers.

    Just a question: how many lines of change are considered "tiny"?

A tiny change is one so small we don't need legal papers for it.
See maintain.texi for the criterion for that.

    ! 2002-10-16  Luc Teirlinck  <teirllm@mail.auburn.edu>  (tiny change)

We have papers from Luc, so it is not useful to put "(tiny change)"
on his changes.  Big or small, they are all covered by papers.

Please only use "(tiny change)" in the cases where we install
a change from someone who did not give us legal papers.

However, it's the total size of that person's changes that determines
whether we need papers.  So each time you install such a change,
always search for the person's name to see if there are other changes
(in C or in Lisp) by the same person.  If there are other changes,
please look at the total size of the new change and the old ones.  If
the total is big enough to need papers, then don't install the new
change.

Re: Installing patches without getting legal papers.

[Juanma Barranquero]

On Wed, 30 Oct 2002 12:16:50 -0500, Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org> wrote:

> A tiny change is one so small we don't need legal papers for it.
> See maintain.texi for the criterion for that.

I'll look into it.

> However, it's the total size of that person's changes that determines
> whether we need papers.  So each time you install such a change,
> always search for the person's name to see if there are other changes
> (in C or in Lisp) by the same person.  If there are other changes,
> please look at the total size of the new change and the old ones.  If
> the total is big enough to need papers, then don't install the new
> change.

OK. Still, most changes not-by-me that I've installed were sent by you.
I assumed you knew if they had signed papers or not...


                                                           /L/e/k/t/u

Re: Installing patches without getting legal papers.

[Richard Stallman]

    OK. Still, most changes not-by-me that I've installed were sent by you.
    I assumed you knew if they had signed papers or not...

Yes, I did check that, for those patches, before sending them to you.

Re: Installing patches without getting legal papers.

[Juanma Barranquero]

On Wed, 30 Oct 2002 12:16:50 -0500, Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org> wrote:

>     Just a question: how many lines of change are considered "tiny"?
> 
> A tiny change is one so small we don't need legal papers for it.
> See maintain.texi for the criterion for that.

I've been unable to find any criterion for that in maintaining.texi.  I
seem to remember that you said some time ago that there was "less than
10 lines or so", though.


                                                           /L/e/k/t/u

Re: Installing patches without getting legal papers.

[Richard Stallman]

    I've been unable to find any criterion for that in maintaining.texi.  I
    seem to remember that you said some time ago that there was "less than
    10 lines or so", though.

I thought it was there, but you are right, it is not.  I will write a
section about that.  "Up to 10 or 15 lines" is where we draw the line.

Re: Installing patches without getting legal papers.

[Richard Stallman]

    Recently, a few such patches have been installed in CVS without being
    marked with (tiny change).  I don't know whether the people who
    submitted those patches have actually signed legal papers, but if not
    (or in doubt), I suggest to add that indication.

Could you add it to the changes where you have seen it is needed?

Re: Installing patches without getting legal papers.

[Francesco Potorti`]

> Some time ago, RMS recommanded to me that when installing _small_
> patches received from "external sources" without proper legal papers,
> those changes should be marked with "(tiny change)" in the ChangeLog
> [in case you want to attribute the change to the person who submitted
> the patch].

Maintain.texi needs to be amended to that effect.  Currently it says:

================================================================
@section Acknowledgements
@cindex acknowledgements

Be careful to be clear when giving credit to people that gave good
ideas, or made important bug reports, or made contributions of less
than 15 lines of original code overall.

Do not cite people names in change log files unless they made an
important contributions and we have papers for them (@pxref{Copyright
Papers}).  If this is the case, it is better to have their name as the
change log entry author.

Re: Installing patches without getting legal papers.

[Richard Stallman]

    > Some time ago, RMS recommanded to me that when installing _small_
    > patches received from "external sources" without proper legal papers,
    > those changes should be marked with "(tiny change)" in the ChangeLog
    > [in case you want to attribute the change to the person who submitted
    > the patch].

    Maintain.texi needs to be amended to that effect.  Currently it says:

Yes, it will have to be changed eventually.  Right now this is still
an experiment.