Re: Patch to make generated manpages use GFDL (fwd)

["Joseph S. Myers" <jsm28 at cam dot ac dot uk>]

Here is the FSF advice on applying the GFDL to generated manpages.

Do people favour adapting texi2pod.pl to generate the manpages gpl(7),
gfdl(7), fsf-funding(7) for the Invariant Sections, or using manually
created manpages?

I'll create an appropriate patch for mainline and branch.

-- 
Joseph S. Myers
jsm28@cam.ac.uk

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: 6 Nov 2001 21:49:08 -0000
From: Free Software Foundation <licensing@gnu.org>
To: Joseph S. Myers <jsm28@cam.ac.uk>
Cc: Free Software Foundation <licensing@gnu.org>
Subject: Re: Patch to make generated manpages use GFDL

"Joseph S. Myers" <jsm28@cam.ac.uk> wrote:
>
> On 11 Oct 2001, Free Software Foundation wrote:
>
> > I'm sorry for the slow response to this question - we have a huge backlog
> > of licensing questions.
> >
> > I am confused about what you want to do here - can you explain the situation
> > from the beginning, so that I can understand what is being asked?
>
> The GCC and GNU Binutils manuals are distributed under the GFDL and
> include a copy of the GFDL.  Manpages are automatically generated from
> parts of these manuals.  What is the correct license notice to put in the
> generated manpages, and does a copy of the GFDL need to be included in
> them?  (Including it in the gcov manpage, for example, extracted from a
> small part of the GCC manual, would make that manpage more than twice as
> long.)
>
> The ld manpage in GNU binutils currently says
>
>        Copyright  (c)  1991, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 2000
>        Free Software Foundation, Inc.
>
>        Permission is granted to copy,  distribute  and/or  modify
>        this  document  under the terms of the GNU Free Documenta-
>        tion License, Version 1.1 or any later  version  published
>        by  the  Free  Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sec-
>        tions, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with  no  Back-Cover
>        Texts.   A  copy of the license is included in the section
>        entitled "GNU Free Documentation License".
>
> but that section with the text of the GFDL is only present in the full
> manual, not the manpage.
>
> The gcc and gcov manpages currently still contain the old permissive
> notice for manuals, while awaiting an answer about how to handle the GFDL
> in this case.
>
> The cpp manpage contains the following notice
>
>        Copyright (c) 1987, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995,
>        1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 Free Software Founda-
>        tion, Inc.
>
>        Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify
>        this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documenta-
>        tion License, Version 1.1 or any later version published
>        by the Free Software Foundation.  A copy of the license is
>        included in the accompanying manual for GCC, in the sec-
>        tion ``GNU Free Documentation License''.  This manual con-
>        tains no Invariant Sections, and has no Front-Cover Texts
>        or Back-Cover Texts.
>
> while the CPP Texinfo manual contains much the same notice (referring to
> the GCC manual for the text of the GFDL), but does have Front-Cover and
> Back-Cover texts.
>
> Is this referring to another manual for the GFDL text valid?

As long as you define the work as a set of man pages, then there's no reason
you need to have the full GFDL on every page.  Just make one page with the
GFDL, and have every other page reference it.

You should distribute the GFDL with your collection of man pages, and
reference it with something like this at the bottom of the man page:

    gfdl(6)

>
> Is it appropriate for a generated manpage under the GFDL to remove
> Front-Cover and Back-Cover texts that apply to the full manual?  Is it
> appropriate for it to specify no Invariant Sections, where the relevant
> parts of the full manual are not included in the manpage?  (For example,
> the gcc manpage does not include the Invariant Sections "GNU General
> Public License" and "Funding Free Software" from the full GCC manual.)

You must include the invariant sections in the collection of GCC man pages.
Just point to them on the page where you have the GFDL.  Each page
should include the Front and Back Cover texts.

--
-David "Novalis" Turner,
Licensing Question Volunteer,
Free Software Foundation