[U-Boot] Uboot_Header_Modification_by_CVS

[Albert ARIBAUD]

Hi Arun,

On Mon, 20 Jan 2014 07:11:19 +0000, "Arun K. Varghese"
<avarghes at ikanos.com> wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> Issue.
> -------
> 
> 1) Downloaded u-boot-2010.09 source code. (u-boot-2010.09.tar.bz2<http://ftp.denx.de/pub/u-boot/u-boot-2010.09.tar.bz2>)
> 2) Some files, have version & header information along with the source code.
> 
> Ex:
> 1)      In  u-boot-2010.09/arch/arm/cpu/ixp/npe/include/IxI2cDrv.h
> 
>  * @version $Revision: 0.1 $
> 
> 2)      In u-boot-2010.09/arch/i386/cpu/sc520/sc520_asm.S
> 
>  * $Revision: 1.2 $
>  * $Date: 1999/09/22 12:49:33 $
>  * $Author: chipf $
> 
> 3) When I do a check in for these files, using CVS, these header information is changed.
> CVS is  automatically modifying these headers.
> 
> Eg :
> 
> In u-boot-2010.09/arch/i386/cpu/sc520/sc520_asm.S
> 
>  * $Revision: 1.2 $
>  * $Date: 1999/09/22 12:49:33 $
>  * $Author: chipf $
> 
> If I do a check in, it will be changed to
> 
>  * $Revision: 1.1.1.2 $
>  * $Date: 2013/12/16 12:49:33 $
>  * $Author: Arun $
> 
> Doubts
> ---------
> 
> 1. Why only few files have these kind of header information in Uboot repository ?

I suspect that is because only a few files (still) contain any
CVS-specific information, since we're using git, not CVS.
 
> 2. If I do a check in via CVS, the headers will be modified,
>    So will it be a violation to GPL ?

The answer to your question is: to me, at least, it is not clearly
compliant because it changes the author, which should never be done.
However, these information lines are technical in nature, not part of
the actual source code as such, and it might thus be ok.

But my first answer would actually be a question: why on Earth do
you use CVS for a project that is managed with git? If you used git,
the issue you raise would simply not exist.

> 3.  If it is a Violation , please help me with a solution .

Use git. :)

It is free, it is open source, it can (and should) be installed on
every developer's machine to help them manage their own developments,
and on servers to help concentrate said developments, any git copy of
U-Boot can easily be kept in sync with our mainline repository (or any
of the specialized custodian repos)... There really is no reason to use
anything else than git. 

> Thanks & Regards,
> Arun

Amicalement,
-- 
Albert.