Suggestions for FSD Documentation Regarding Adding New Pages

[Jacob K]

Hello,

When adding a new entry to the FSD, it's not clear to me what the 
expectations are for how we should make sure that the program fits the 
directory. The Requirements page [1] is good but it mostly focuses on 
what the problems are and not how to check for them. There's also some 
instructions on the Custom entries page [2], and it mentions some tools 
like licensecheck but doesn't elaborate on how to use them.

I knew how to check if software is free based on discussions in #fsf , 
but clearer documentation could make this easier, and mentioning a 
single script that runs the checks currently listed on the wiki would be 
helpful.

Currently when I check software I run scancode and get a csv with lots 
of licenses and files, and then I manually filter out the 
free/compatible licenses. This means I have to know what all of those 
licenses are. I don't have a good consistent way to get dependencies. A 
better script could automate some of this work.

I propose we combine information from those pages as well as information 
from IRC logs about how to scan [3] and new information that makes 
checking whether a program is free software as easy as possible while 
increasing accuracy. This page would have a list of steps as well as a 
script to automate what can be automated, for example, getting 
dependencies in some cases using deplock [4] or hiding licenses that 
never cause conflicts like CC0 and Expat (probably also hiding copyleft 
licenses is fine [5]).

If we want people who submit entries to scan them, maybe this info 
should go on the Custom entries page [6]. Otherwise, maybe there could 
be a new page called Scan or something, with encouragement to scan 
entries people have submitted that haven't been approved yet [7].

 - Jacob K

[1] https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Free_Software_Directory:Requirements
[2] 
https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Free_Software_Directory:Custom_entries#Searching_in_source_trees
[3] e.g. a suggestion I got one time to use `./scancode -n `nproc` -l -p 
--license --csv file-name.csv ../directory-of-code-base/`
[4] https://github.com/aboutcode-org/dependency-inspector
[5] I think it's okay to auto-approve all free licenses because the only 
reason there would be a problem here is if some licenses are 
incompatible, in which case the project would be copyright infringing 
and addressing this can be the project's responsibility.
[6] https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Free_Software_Directory:Custom_entries
[7] 
https://directory.fsf.org/wiki?title=Special:ApprovedRevs&show=unapproved

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