On 7/24/25 2:42 AM, [email protected] wrote:
Sven-Hendrik Haase <[email protected]> wrote:

Hey all,

With [RFC40][0] and [RFC52][1] merged, we're now going full steam to
make sure the changes outlined in those RFCs are soon implemented.
If you are a packager and only care about how this concerns you without
the nitty gritty details, here's what you need to know in short:

1. PKGBUILDs and auxiliary files (e.g. config files, etc.) that Arch
Linux contributors provided will be licensed under 0BSD. Full current
list [here][3].
2. Licensing information will be documented in a `REUSE.toml` file per
repository and will be maintained by package maintainers going forward.
3. We will generate a `REUSE.toml` (using `pkgctl license setup`) for
most packages.
4. You may have to make changes to your packages (details below)!
5. When moving package source repositories from the AUR, either contact
past contributors and ask for consent to license under 0BSD, or rewrite
the package sources.

The changes introduced in [RFC40][0] and [RFC52][1] have a general
impact on packaging work.

To clearly document which licenses apply to which files, we are
introducing REUSE [2], which provides a structured configuration file
format (`REUSE.toml`) for mapping files to concrete licenses.
In the near future, we will add these files to package source repos in
an automated fashion using `pkgctl license setup`.
While doing so, we will exclude some packages added after 2024-11-01,
see [this issue][4] for further details.


[4]:
https://gitlab.archlinux.org/archlinux/packaging/licensing-package-sources/-/issues/149

I get a 404.

This is expected, this GitLab issue is marked as "confidential" (due to its confidential content) and is therefore only visible by logged staff.


--
u34



In some cases (around 750 out of 12462 repos), packager maintainers will
need to manually perform some changes, as adding a `REUSE.toml` will not
work out of the box. There will be a todo list on Arch web for those
packages where manual action is required.
The most common reasons for this are:

1. The package's license isn't specified in an SPDX conforming fashion
(e.g. `GPL2` instead of `GPL-2.0-or-later`). There are open MRs on
GitLab to make some packages SPDX conforming [5]. We will go through
these and we'll try to merge all of these.
2. Multiple license identifiers are specified in the PKGBUILD and
SRCINFO files and patch files are present in the package source repository.
     In this case, we can't automatically pick a suitable upstream license.

By default, all files in package source repos must be licensed under 0BSD.
0BSD is very permissive and files licensed under its terms can be
contributed upstream under their desired license.

For some files, 0BSD might not be suitable, and contributors need to
choose a different license depending on the situation. Here are some
common cases:

- Included files originating from contributors that have not agreed to
the 0BSD license.
    If the files are available under a FOSS license, mark the files under
that particular license in the `REUSE.toml`.
    If no license is provided, the files need to be rewritten or removed.
- Patches taken from upstream and committed to the repository need to be
annotated with the correct upstream license.

`pkgctl license` will be available from devtools v1.4.0 onwards. After
this release, you will encounter a warning when running `pkgctl release`
if your package source repository isn't compliant.

If there are any open questions with existing packages and the new reuse
setup, reach out over the mailing list or in the packaging channel.

Cheers,
Rafael and Sven

[0]: https://rfc.archlinux.page/0040-license-package-sources/
[1]: https://gitlab.archlinux.org/archlinux/rfcs/-/merge_requests/52
[2]: https://reuse.software/
[3]:
https://gitlab.archlinux.org/archlinux/devtools/-/blob/b8c475b3f402809fc65b7f43ffe82d2e6a9c7c16/src/lib/license/setup.sh#L185
[4]:
https://gitlab.archlinux.org/archlinux/packaging/licensing-package-sources/-/issues/149
[5]:
https://gitlab.archlinux.org/search?scope=merge_requests&search=spdx&state=opened


--
Regards,
Robin Candau / Antiz

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