[OE-core] [PATCH] base-passwd: LICENSE changed to GPLv2

[Wang, Mingyu]

Hi,
Richard

> Why? The license file didn't change. This needs an explanation.

1. For base-passwd, I think that it's gpl-2.0-only since it is declared as "gpl-2" in debian/copyright, not "gpl-2 or later"

License: GPL-2
 On Debian and Debian-based systems, a copy of the GNU General Public
 License version 2 is available in /usr/share/common-licenses/GPL-2.

2.GPLv2 constant:
>   9. The Free Software Foundation may publish revised and/or new versions
> of the General Public License from time to time.  Such new versions will
> be similar in spirit to the present version, but may differ in detail to
> address new problems or concerns.
>
> Each version is given a distinguishing version number.  If the Program
> specifies a version number of this License which applies to it and "any
> later version", you have the option of following the terms and conditions
> either of that version or of any later version published by the Free
> Software Foundation.  If the Program does not specify a version number of
> this License, you may choose any version ever published by the Free Software
> Foundation.
The license would be GPLv2+, only when license name is "gpl-2 or later".

3. The bb file of libcomps contains the following contents:
LICENSE = "GPLv2"
The "COPYING“ file from libcomps and base-passwd are the same,
So it seems that the package LICENSE fields of the same copyright declaration are not unified.

By wangmy


-----Original Message-----
From: Richard Purdie [mailto:richard.purdie at linuxfoundation.org] 
Sent: Friday, March 13, 2020 3:10 PM
To: Wang, Mingyu/王 鸣瑜 <wangmy at cn.fujitsu.com>; openembedded-core at lists.openembedded.org
Subject: Re: [OE-core] [PATCH] base-passwd: LICENSE changed to GPLv2

On Fri, 2020-03-13 at 04:11 -0700, Wang Mingyu wrote:
> Signed-off-by: Wang Mingyu <wangmy at cn.fujitsu.com>
> ---
>  meta/recipes-core/base-passwd/base-passwd_3.5.29.bb | 2 +-
>  1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)
> 
> diff --git a/meta/recipes-core/base-passwd/base-passwd_3.5.29.bb
> b/meta/recipes-core/base-passwd/base-passwd_3.5.29.bb
> index d1aab09181..d01cd7e297 100644
> --- a/meta/recipes-core/base-passwd/base-passwd_3.5.29.bb
> +++ b/meta/recipes-core/base-passwd/base-passwd_3.5.29.bb
> @@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
>  SUMMARY = "Base system master password/group files"
>  DESCRIPTION = "The master copies of the user database files 
> (/etc/passwd and /etc/group).  The update-passwd tool is also provided 
> to keep the system databases synchronized with these master files."
>  SECTION = "base"
> -LICENSE = "GPLv2+"
> +LICENSE = "GPLv2"
>  LIC_FILES_CHKSUM =
> "file://COPYING;md5=eb723b61539feef013de476e68b5c50a"

Why? The license file didn't change. This needs an explanation.

Cheers,

Richard