Subject: [HEADS-UP] Changes in handling package licenses
To: pkgsrc-users <pkgsrc-users@netbsd.org>
From: Roland Illig <rillig@NetBSD.org>
List: pkgsrc-users
Date: 10/17/2007 13:12:41
Dear pkgsrc users,
up to now, packages that are Open Source or Free Software didn't require
their license to be specified. This will change very soon. To save you
from surprises, here are the things that will change:
In the medium term, all packages will have their LICENSE declared. This
allows you to distinguish about Open Source licenses, and select for
every license whether you accept it or not.
You probably don't have to change anything in your mk.conf file, as long
as you always _append_ the licenses to the ACCEPTED_LICENSES variable
(using "+=" instead of a simple "="). In this case, the Open Source
licenses will be automatically added to the acceptable licenses.
Only if you explicitly override the ACCEPTED_LICENSES in mk.conf using
"=" instead of "+=", you may get build failures for packages that
previously worked because you haven't accepted their licenses. In that
case, you should either change the "=" to "+=" in mk.conf (which means
accepting the Open Source licenses) or explicitly add the licenses you
want to accept to ACCEPTED_LICENSES. You can find more details in the
file pkgsrc/mk/license.mk.
All other changes are mostly interesting to pkgsrc developers and will
therefore be discussed on the tech-pkg mailing list, not here.
Any questions?
Roland