Bug#1001635: licensecheck: UNKNOWN so too terse (should distinguish as COMPLEX/MAYBE/NONE)

[Jonas Smedegaard]

[ bug#950363 cloned as bug#1001635 ]

Quoting Dominique Dumont (2020-02-07 14:34:18)
> On Thursday, 6 February 2020 11:21:01 CET Jonas Smedegaard wrote:
> > ...then maybe I should add " and/or UNKNOWNS" to _all_ detections - 
> > which is currently implied by the "FIXME" comments.
> 
> The way I see it, the FIXME comment instructs user to find the license 
> text. I assume that the license is correctly detected unless specified 
> otherwise (with "and/or"). I know that licensecheck is a heuristic 
> tools and misdetections are possible. But I cannot afford to 
> systematically verify each file.
> 
> Adding " and/or UNKNOWNS" to _all_ detections would make me question 
> the added value of licensecheck.

Uncertainties in licensecheck is a distinct subclass of "FIXMEs" which I 
think can be improved on.

Licensecheck generally attempts to classify and reference licensing
statements by shortnames, which are locally distinct and preferably also
globally well-known.

When Licensecheck gives up, it uses the pseudo-identifier UNKNOWN as
default.  Better if this was distinguished further:

  * COMPLEX: unknown how to classify strong licensing traits
  * MAYBE: unkown how to classify weak licensing traits
  * UNKNOWN: uncertain if licensing exist
  * NONE: certain that no licensing exist

"UNKNOWN" should be treated as "please examine this file closer".

I suspect that if distinguishing *why* a file needs further examination, 
then wrapper tools like scan-copyright might more reliably suppress only 
those subcategories that they can truly improve on, while leaving open 
FIXMEs they cannot reliably deal with.


 - Jonas

-- 
 * Jonas Smedegaard - idealist & Internet-arkitekt
 * Tlf.: +45 40843136  Website: http://dr.jones.dk/

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