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  1. Legal Discuss
  2. LEGAL-124

Are license headers really mandatory in every source file?

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    • Question
    • Status: Closed
    • Major
    • Resolution: Fixed
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    Description

      The Release FAQ says "Every source file must contain the appropriate ASF License text." http://www.apache.org/dev/release.html#which-files-contain-license

      The question often comes up if that really means MUST and if it means every single file in SVN or with a source distribution when a release is being made.

      I can't find any links now but thought i remember being told some years ago on legal-discuss was that the top level LICENSE file covers everything anyway so the individual license headers aren't strictly necessary especially for source files without significant IP. Could we get a opinion here on if thats true? So for example things like short README files perhaps don't need a license header or files without significant IP where the header can be problematic for some reason.

      Any opinions here either way?

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            Unassigned Unassigned
            aelder ant elder
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