Thread: GPL / General Licensing Question

Hello,
I was wondering about the correct way to license a shell script / program for public use. Let's say we write a script that may be useful to others. Can we just add the GPL license to the header?

e.g:

Code:

#===================================================================#
# This program 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.
#===================================================================#

Is this safe and legal?


jaysunn

Llooks nice to me, from scripts posted at bash.cyberciti.biz

Code:

#!/bin/bash
set -e
# Use this script to copy shared (libs) files to nginx chrooted
# jail server. This is tested on 64 bit Linux (Redhat and Friends only)
# ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Written by Vivek Gite <http://www.cyberciti.biz/>
# (c) 2006 nixCraft under GNU GPL v2.0+
# Last updated on: Apr/06/2010 by Vivek Gite
# ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

The official GNU GPL page says that the copying permission statement should come right after the copyright notices. For a one-file program, the statement (for the GPL) should look like this:

Code:

 This program 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.

    This program 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.

    You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
    along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.

Stolen from How to use GNU licenses for your own software - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation (FSF)

I'd suggest you add your email id; so that any one can contact you with suggestions or improvements.

Yeah,
Adding a contact address makes sense.

Thanks Rockdalinux.

jaysunn

This may also increase spam so go for gmail address or use your own domain with strong spam protection; been there done that!