Re: Update copyright for 2016/17 files, and script (issue 320390043 by address@hidden)

[Urs Liska]

Am 23.03.2017 um 01:50 schrieb address@hidden:
> Could you separate the "Run script xyz" changes from the changes to
> script(s)?  That would help to see exactly what's happening here.

Yes, I'll do so, but this patch isn't really intended to be merged as-is
anyway.

>
>
> https://codereview.appspot.com/320390043/diff/1/scripts/auxiliar/update-copyright.sh
>
> File scripts/auxiliar/update-copyright.sh (right):
>
> https://codereview.appspot.com/320390043/diff/1/scripts/auxiliar/update-copyright.sh#newcode3
>
> scripts/auxiliar/update-copyright.sh:3: echo "Update copyright dates in
> LilyPond sources"
> Sorry I didn't notice this earlier.  

Yes, this would have made my take a different approach when I had
initially asked about the copyright statement issue.

> How does this differ from
>
>     make grand-replace
>
> ?
> http://lilypond.org/doc/v2.19/Documentation/contributor/unsorted-policies

The main difference (in intention, regardless of any coding flaws that
may be in my script) is that my script updates the copyright message
only if the file has been changed in the "target" year ("now" by
default). Unfortunately I don't find a link right now, but it is my
understanding that the copyright notice should only be updated to files
that have actually been modified. My script still gives false positives,
as for example recently some files have been renamed, which is not a
copyrightable modification but causes a change to Git's view of the
file, but I think it is still better than globally changing *all* files.

What I didn't know (and therefore failed to implement) is the idea of
filtering external files.

So what I basically should do now is drop my shell script and
incorporate the "last updated" logic into the grand-replace.py script.
Maybe I can do some more vetting of the individual files, e.g. to filter
out trivial changes (like updating the copyright string or file renaming).

In addition I'd like to bring up the concern that Hans Åberg has raised:
what about files that are *generated* from Flex or Bison sources,
shouldn't such files be regenerated too? And how to find them?

Finally, if my initial assumption about the copyright notice is correct,
this script should not be run manually at the beginning of each year
(which obviously doesn't always happen anyway) but at regular intervals,
e.g. before/after each merge to master (probably too noisy for the
history) or at least before each release.

Opinions?
Urs