Correct typos detected by lintian

[gregoa]

In Debian we are currently applying the following patch to Rex.
We thought you might be interested in it too.

Subject: Correct typos detected by lintian
Origin: vendor
From: Alex Mestiashvili <[email protected]>
Reviewed-by: gregor herrmann <[email protected]>
Last-Update: 2023-06-11

The patch is tracked in our Git repository at
https://salsa.debian.org/perl-team/modules/packages/rex/raw/master/debian/patches/spelling.patch

Thanks for considering,
gregor herrmann,
Debian Perl Group

[ferki]

Thanks again for this PR, and your patience, @gregoa!

I expected it would be a straightforward merge, but the more I look at it, the more legal/licensing questions keep bothering me. I feel I miss some detail which I can't figure out on my own 😅 Things like:

1. Is the original patch authored by @mestia or @gregoa?
2. Is the commit's author and committer info correctly represents the intent of everyone involved in creating it?

I'd like to make sure we properly give credit for everyone involved, and also that I don't mistakenly merge something without understanding the actual license details (also: does it matter in the first place for purely typo fixes? 🤔 ).

Could both of you folks help clarify the situation for me, please?

[gregoa]

Let's try :)

Here's a git log output from our repo [0] regarding the file debian/patches/spelling.patch which turned into this PR:

* b0bac37c 2023-08-09 N Mark spelling.patch as Forwarded. [gregor herrmann]
* 0e0e8ac2 2023-06-11 N fix spelling.patch [gregor herrmann]
* a24bccae 2023-05-29 N Add one more fix to spelling.patch. [gregor herrmann]
* e4ccc596 2023-03-06 N Refresh spelling.patch (offset). [gregor herrmann]
* aef45825 2023-02-06 N Refresh spelling.patch (offset). [gregor herrmann]
* 2b5a2662 2021-09-28 N Update spelling.patch (remove a fixed hunk). [gregor herrmann]
* 0d263375 2020-11-08 N Refresh spelling.patch. [gregor herrmann]
* ffed8999 2020-08-06 N Add another fix to spelling.patch. [gregor herrmann]
* eb6cb6c2 2020-06-07 N Update spelling.patch [Alexandre Mestiashvili]
* 53a4b8ed 2020-02-07 N Refresh spelling.patch (offset). [gregor herrmann]
* c8c093c7 2019-11-09 N Refresh spelling.patch [Alexandre Mestiashvili]
* 1f293a3e 2017-03-17 N Refresh spelling.patch [Alexandre Mestiashvili]
* b8f593d9 2016-07-21 N Update spelling.patch [Alexandre Mestiashvili]
* 7e8c8d26 2016-03-10 N d/patches/spelling.patch: Add link [Alexandre Mestiashvili]
* 164fb120 2016-03-09 N d/patches/spelling.patch: Correct typos [Alexandre Mestiashvili]

So, it was originally created by @mestia, and over the last 7 (oops) years both @mestia and me updated it.

Regarding licensing: all files in the debian/ directory in our package/repo are licensed under a superset of the upstream license and the perl license terms, i.e. Apache-2.0 or Artistic or GPL-1+.[1] - Also I'm a bit sceptical that a two-character typo fix reaches the required threshold of creativity to invoke any copyright/droit d'auteur/Urheberrecht issues in the first place :)

The whole https://github.com/pkg-perl-tools/Rex repo simply exists as a means of semi-automatically turning our patch into a simple-to-merge pull request (and will be deleted afterwards), and as I was the one to type dpt forward debian/patches/spelling.patch, the commit shows my name as the commiter.

In any case, the patch is license-compatible (as Apache-2.0) with the upstream code, and if you want to mention copyright holders and/or give credit to authors, you can use 2016-2023, Alex Mestiashvili <[email protected]> and gregor herrmann <[email protected]> or something similar.

I hope this answers some of your questions, and that @mestia doesn't disagree with my view :)

Cheers,
gregor

[0] https://salsa.debian.org/perl-team/modules/packages/rex
[1] cf. https://salsa.debian.org/perl-team/modules/packages/rex/-/blob/master/debian/copyright#L52

[ferki]

Thanks for your patience here!

After reviewing the situation, and considering alternative options, I believe the most straightforward way to correctly represent the authorship of changes is to add the following trailer to the original commit message:

Co-authored-by: Alex Mestiashvili <[email protected]>

That way:

• @gregoa would remain the commit author, and gets automatically added to list of contributors based on git history upon next release
• @mestia would correctly get credited for this commit as co-author (and of course remain in list of contributors due to previous commits)

Would that work for both of you? Please let me know by 2025-02-04 as I plan to tag the next stable release the day after that.

You may rebase this branch and force push to it as needed, and GitHub should pick the changes up.

[gregoa]

On Sat, 25 Jan 2025 13:16:37 -0800, Ferenc Erki wrote: Would that work for both of you? Please let me know by 2025-02-04 as I plan to tag the next stable release the day after that.

Sounds good to me, thanks. Cheers, gregor

…

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[ferki]

Thanks again for contributing and your patience! I've merged the agreed changes now via #1640, and plan to tag a new release soon.

I hope this helps your Debian packaging work (thanks! ❤️), and I look forward to any future patches too which may make packaging easier!

[mestia]

Sorry for the late response. Thank you both for taking care of and reviewing this not very technical issue! Of course, I am fine with the changes.

[ferki]

Thank you both for taking care of and reviewing this not very technical issue! Of course, I am fine with the changes.

Thanks @mestia for your Rex contibutions and patience too! I feel glad you also confirmed the approach we chose here 👍

I look forward catching and fixing similar issues sooner next time! :)