apache / apache/logging-log4j2
Small licensing and copyright documentation inconsistencies
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- Java
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Description
## Description
While chatting with @ppkarwasz I ran a scancode scan of https://repo1.maven.org/maven2/org/apache/logging/log4j/log4j-core/2.24.3/log4j-core-2.24.3-sources.jar using the latest https://github.com/aboutcode-org/scancode.io
Here are some notes:
- Overall the scan clarity in the latest scancode.io looks fine to me:

There are a few small oddities:
- A sample copyright there is not useful IMHO:
https://github.com/apache/logging-log4j2/blob/7acbc486854cd9b62184883ef9ee5973e1ef1b8b/log4j-core/src/main/java/org/apache/logging/log4j/core/tools/picocli/CommandLine.java#L1508
- the META-INF/DEPENDENCIES file comes with good intentions, but is not useful and eventually misleading as not all these deps may be installed. I would advise against including such data that is likely wrong. (and will be detected by ScanCode but will lead to busy work for reviewing this)
- if you intend for your NOTICE file to include all copyrights, it is incomplete as it is missing https://github.com/apache/logging-log4j2/blob/7acbc486854cd9b62184883ef9ee5973e1ef1b8b/log4j-core/src/main/java/org/apache/logging/log4j/core/util/CronExpression.java#L21
- this license header may be not the original one https://github.com/apache/logging-log4j2/blob/7acbc486854cd9b62184883ef9ee5973e1ef1b8b/log4j-core/src/main/java/org/apache/logging/log4j/core/util/CronExpression.java ... back in ~ 2015, this was likely like this https://github.com/quartz-scheduler/quartz/blob/40b70e3ab49ecc0b53f4d719e6e81392469fd5f6/quartz-core/src/main/java/org/quartz/CronExpression.java ... I would likely restore the original one. And same ... if you really intend your NOTICE to be comprehensive, this is missing there.
- Your NOTICE file dates are likely outdated. I would remove dates or remove the NOTICE
- The author and copyright info from Tim Fennel was stripped from its original at https://github.com/apache/logging-log4j2/blob/3e6bb87f728a9da48d33cecf9dd02dd09bc1a330/log4j2-core/src/main/java/org/apache/logging/log4j/core/config/plugins/ResolverUtil.java and the license notice changed. I would restore it.
Contributor guide
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Research direction
Review the referenced CommandLine.java, CronExpression.java, and ResolverUtil.java files together with META-INF/DEPENDENCIES and NOTICE. Compare the current source and notices with the linked historical versions, then verify the resulting licensing and copyright information against a ScanCode scan. Done means the inconsistencies identified in the issue are resolved or explicitly clarified.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- java
- Domain
- documentation
- Issue type
- Documentation
- Difficulty
- 4/5
- Estimated time
- 3-5 days
- Activity status
- Stale
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 35/100