Managing package copyright files

Software to be packaged is usually under some license which should be included in the package. A license is searched from inside the distributed source in WORKSRC for all modulations, in DISTFILES or defined inline in the Makefile. The license is stored in a package by convention in

/opt/csw/share/doc/<pkg-catalogname>/license

Using a licensefile 'COPYING' from the source

The simplest case is just taking the license file from the distributed source. If it is called COPYING you have to do... nothing, as this is the default.

Using a licensefile from the source with a different name

To choose another filename use

LICENSE = README.license

Starting with r19709 is it possible to specify multiple licenses which are concatenated in the license file:

LICENSE += COPYING
LICENSE += COPYING.GPL
LICENSE += COPYING.LGPL

Using a licensefile distributed separately

To add a custom license to a package you simply make sure you have a file COPYING in files/:

DISTFILES += COPYING

This is copied to WORKDIR and again automatically picked up from there.

Using different licensefiles for separate packages

When building multiple packages out of a single Makefile it is also possible to define a separate license for each package:

LICENSE_CSWmypkg1 = COPY-ME
LICENSE_CSWmypkg2 = README.license

Directly define a license

If the package uses a simple license you can also add this license directly into the build recipe with

LICENSE_TEXT = This package is distributed under the beer license

This is of course also possible for different packages:

LICENSE_TEXT_CSWfoo = Foo-stuff license
LICENSE_TEXT_CSWbar = Distribution under the bar license is permitted

Using no license at all

First let me say that this is against the OpenCSW standard and raises a checkpkg error. Now that you now this you can avoid including a license with

LICENSE =

If you are using the default 'COPYING' and it is not found there is also no license included.

Printing the full license on pkgadd

Usually only a hint is printed on pkgadd where to find the license. You can alternatively print this license fully on pkgadd (e. g. when the license demands this). To do so, put this in your Makefile;

LICENSE_FULL_CSW<pkgname> = COPYING

Regardless of the license being printed it is put in the license directory at /opt/csw/share/doc/<catalogname>/license. It is an error to specify both LICENSE and LICENSE_FULL for a package.