1 .. -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
3 ``update-copyright`` is an automatic copyright updating tool. I wrote
4 the original for `Bugs Everywhere`_, but ended up copying it into a
5 number of my projects. Copying is bad, so here it is, split out as
6 its own separate project.
17 I've packaged ``update-copyright`` for Gentoo_. You need layman_ and
18 my `wtk overlay`_. Install with::
20 # emerge -av app-portage/layman
22 # emerge -av dev-util/update-copyright
27 ``update-copyright`` is a simple package with few external
28 dependencies. The only external dependencies are the Python packages
29 behind Python-based version control systems. If you're using those
30 VCSs, you've already installed the packages. If you're not using
31 those VCSs, you don't need the packages.
36 ``update-copyright`` is available as a Git_ repository::
38 $ git clone git://tremily.us/update-copyright.git
40 See the homepage_ for details. To install the checkout, run the
43 $ python setup.py install
48 You'll need a project that you version with one of our supported VCSs
49 (currently Git, Mercurial, and Bazaar, but it should be pretty easy to
50 add backends for other systems). You'll also need a config file
51 called ``.update-copyright.conf`` in your package root, which will be
52 parsed using Python's RawConfigParser_ (`syntax documentation`_,
53 interpolation is turned off). Your config file will look something
57 name: update-copyright
63 ignored: COPYING, README, .update-copyright.conf, .git*
64 pyfile: update_copyright/license.py
67 short: {project} comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY and is licensed under the GNU General Public License.
68 long: This file is part of {project}.
70 {project} is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
72 {project} is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.
74 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with {project}. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
80 A string naming your project. Replaces ``{project}`` in your
83 The name of your version control system.
85 Should ``update-copyright.py`` generate an ``AUTHORS`` file?
88 Should ``update-copyright.py`` update copyright blurbs in versioned
89 files? ``yes`` or ``no``.
91 A comma-separated list of globs matching files that should not have
92 copyright blurbs updated. This protects files that may accidentally
93 caught by the blurb update algorithm.
95 The path of an autogenerated license module, in case your program
96 wants to print out its copyright/licensing information. If you
97 don't set this option, no license module will be generated.
99 A list of paragraphs (separated by blank lines) containing your
100 short copyright/license blurb. This blurb is used in the pyfile's
101 ``short_license`` function (see `files/pyfile`). This exists
102 because some programs print a short license blurb on startup, where
103 the full file-topping blurb may be overkill.
105 A list of paragraphs (separated by blank lines) containing your long
106 copyright/license blurb. This blurb is used to replace copyright
107 blurbs in your source files.
109 Updating copyright blurbs
110 -------------------------
112 The blurb-update algorithm looks for any lines that begin with ``#
113 Copyright``. These lines mark the beginning of a blurb, which
114 continues as long as subsequent lines begin with ``#``. The old blurb
115 is replaced by a new blurb, which is automatically generated from your
116 configured long copyright string, with author names and edit years
117 extracted from the VCS data for that file.
119 While the above works well for languages that use ``#`` to mark
120 comment lines, it doesn't work for languages like C that use ``/*…*/``
121 to mark comments. There blurb-update algorithm also looks for any
122 lines that begging with ``/* Copyright`` and replaces that line, and
123 subsequent lines up to one beginning with `` */``, with a new blurb.
125 Because I've never seen a file with *both* trigger lines, it shouldn't
126 be a problem to run both against each of your versioned files. If it
127 is a problem for you, let me know, and we can add some configuration
128 options to work around the problem.
130 Incomplete VCS history
131 ----------------------
133 Sometimes files have authors or alterations not recorded in a
134 project's VCS history. You can use the ``author-hacks`` section to
135 add authors to a file, and the ``year-hacks`` section to adjust the
136 files original year. Author names should be pipe-separated. For
140 path/to/file: John Doe <jdoe@a.com> | Jane Smith <jsmith@b.net>
143 path/to/another/file: 2009
145 Add entries for as many files as you like. Paths should be relative
146 to your project root. Always use forward slashes (``/``) to separate
152 Occasionally names or email addresses used when committing to the VCS
153 will go out of date. Some VCSs have a built-in method of dealing with
154 this (e.g. Git's .mailmap_). For those without such a VCS, you can
155 add an `aliases`` section to your config file, where the option names
156 are the canonical name of the ...?. For example::
159 John Doe <jdoe@a.com>: John Doe | jdoe | J. Doe <j@doe.net>
164 Run the internal unit tests with::
166 $ nosetests --with-doctest --doctest-tests update_copyright
171 This project is distributed under the `GNU General Public License
172 Version 3`_ or greater.
181 .. _Bugs Everywhere: http://bugseverywhere.org/
182 .. _Gentoo: http://www.gentoo.org/
183 .. _layman: http://layman.sourceforge.net/
184 .. _wtk overlay: http://blog.tremily.us/posts/Gentoo_overlay/
185 .. _Git: http://git-scm.com/
186 .. _homepage: http://blog.tremily.us/posts/update-copyright/
188 http://docs.python.org/dev/library/configparser.html#configparser.RawConfigParser
189 .. _syntax documentation:
190 http://docs.python.org/dev/library/configparser.html#supported-ini-file-structure
191 .. _.mailmap: http://schacon.github.com/git/git-shortlog.html#_mapping_authors
192 .. _GNU General Public License Version 3: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html