Re: update-copyright request and patch...

[Jim Meyering]

Joel Brobecker wrote:

> Hi Jim,
>
>> Currently parted work and an imminent coreutils release are taking all of
>> my time.  Maybe Joel Denny can help?  At worst, I'll follow up next week.
>
> This really has no urgency at all. I've done the update for GDB and
> we are good for another year.
>
> Also, I am trying to get the OK from the FSF to merge all copyright
> year into one single range (even if some years are missing in the
> middle). That would ensure that all the "copyright ... FSF" line
> would fit entirely on one line. Not sure if this is going to be OK
> or not, but I'll ask.

Hi Joel,

Good news: the GCS has been updated to explain that using copyright
year ranges is now ok.  The only conditions are that you perform

    https://savannah.gnu.org/forum/forum.php?forum_id=6576

the strict conversion (i.e., "2002,2004" cannot be converted to
"2002-2004") and that you add a note, say to README like this:

    For any copyright year range specified as YYYY-ZZZZ in this package
    note that the range specifies every single year in that closed interval.

> In the meantime, the GDB project adopted year ranges in the copyright
> notice as you recommended, and so the number of files where the length
> of the copyright line will change should be quite reduced.
>
> So, the GDB project itself should be relatively covered, and this
> patch is mostly for the benefit of other projects. I'd like to see
> it through, if that does not unnecessarily complexifies the script.