Ooh, had another thought. We can probably make the rat plugin run under a pre-commit hook [1]. That way, while you're actively developing, the rat plugin need not get in the way, but it still serves as a gatekeeper before you can commit.
Git also allows for hooks around git am, so committers can invoke rat then to ensure contributed patches have licenses. That would be useful in case a contributor never commits locally, for example (or disables the pre-commit hook locally :) ). So, specifically, elements for this option: * by default, either do not run rat or run it with ignoreErrors=true * set pre-commit hook to run rat:check and verify * set pre-applypatch hook to also run rat:check and verify [1] http://git-scm.com/book/en/Customizing-Git-Git-Hooks On Tue, Jun 17, 2014 at 5:11 PM, Alex Moundalexis <al...@clouderagovt.com> wrote: > I like this plan. > > * doesn't discourage new contributors > * provides information for those who want to dig deeper > > On Tue, Jun 17, 2014 at 5:04 PM, Bill Havanki <bhava...@clouderagovt.com> > wrote: > > > It seems like a middle way would be: > > > > * always run the rat plugin > > * configure it by default with ignoreErrors=true > > * let committers / Jenkins / release managers et al. explicitly set > > rat.ignoreErrors=false (in MAVEN_OPTS or wherever) > > > > By default, the plugin will warn about files lacking a license, but will > > continue the build. Contributors are exposed to the check but not > > constrained by it. Example: > > > > --- > > [INFO] Rat check: Summary of files. Unapproved: 1 unknown: 1 generated: 0 > > approved: 187 licence. > > [WARNING] Rat check: 1 files with unapproved licenses. See RAT report in: > > /Users/bhavanki/dev/accumulo/server/base/target/rat.txt > > --- > > > > Any entity that should enforce licenses then needs to set the > ignoreErrors > > flag to false. This can be part of committer onboarding. > > > > Bill > > > > > > On Tue, Jun 17, 2014 at 4:59 PM, Josh Elser <josh.el...@gmail.com> > wrote: > > > > > > > > > > > On 6/17/14, 1:47 PM, Alex Moundalexis wrote: > > > > > >> This kind of response is hardly conducive to prospective contributors. > > >> > > >> We should consider ourselves lucky whenever a contributor provides a > > >> patch, > > >> let alone runs a build. Expecting a new contributor be fully aware of > > the > > >> Apache licensing details isn't realistic, much less being aware of the > > >> arguments concerning Rat; if the ignoreErrors argument is TheWay, it > > ought > > >> to be mentioned prominently in the source documentation [1], but I > don't > > >> think that's correct either... > > >> > > >> I don't want to encourage contributors to skip the build. I want > > >> contributors to be aware of the licensing requirements, but not at the > > >> expense of providing otherwise-viable patches. I'd recommend relaxing > > the > > >> Rat checks for contributors, and making it a required part of the > > profile > > >> for automated Jenkins builds and during the release process. > > >> > > >> The onus should be on the committers to ensure that all of the > licensing > > >> is > > >> in place before the release, but preferably long before that point by > > >> guiding the contributor to make the necessary license additions before > > the > > >> commit. > > >> > > > > > > This is an important thing to remember. The point of shepherding > > > contributors is to eventually get them to committer status, at which > > point > > > they'll be personally responsible for these things. While we definitely > > > don't want to be to abrasive initially that they get fed up and go > away, > > we > > > can't fully insulate from the necessary either. > > > > > > > > > > > >> I've been told to correct whitespace at the end of a line before and > to > > >> re-submit a patch, seems trivial to address missing licensing files in > > the > > >> same way. > > >> > > >> [1] https://accumulo.apache.org/source.html > > >> > > >> > > > > > > -- > > // Bill Havanki > > // Solutions Architect, Cloudera Govt Solutions > > // 443.686.9283 > > > -- // Bill Havanki // Solutions Architect, Cloudera Govt Solutions // 443.686.9283
