Tim (and all),

sorry I took a bit to answer :)

| On 27-Oct-00 Jason R. Fink wrote:
| > This is an extraordinarily good idea. I have cross posted to netbsd-docs
| > to kick off a discussion there about documenting this issue somewhere
| > (although it most likely already is).
|
| I'd like to see this done in a way that is machine parseable..  for example..
|
| Create a directory called "licenses" or whatever, and in that directory will
+be
| files, like:

do you mean an explanation more or less tied to what it does?
an equivalent in a command like the popular -h or GNU --help option
but something that is in a file with somewhat of an explanation of
what it means?

I think that is a good idea _as_well_as_ getting it in the docs.

IMHO it might be better to find a way to put it in one file if possible.
One of the big issues as of late has been en masses file generation.

What might make the most sense (although I readily admit, it would really
be a pain in the arse) might be to use a system database like rcfiles
to simply have YES NO options in them with an accompanying comment to
explain what it is the user is mucking with, for example:

sonefile.conf:

section ACCEPTABLE_LICENSES+= \
 commercial="NO" # this controls acceptence of commercial lisc.
 artistic="YES"  * this controls acceptance of the artistic lic.
...

even though 9 out of 10 times the user will _read_the_docs_anyway_
this goes a long way for the isolated user(s).

less mess and muss.

thoughts?

regards,

        jrf

-- 
Jason R. Fink <jrf@diverge.org>