Questions tagged [github]
GitHub is a web-based Git repository hosting service, which offers free accounts for FLOSS software projects. Use this tag for questions about how working with GitHub affects open source projects.
245
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What can I assume if a publicly published project has no license?
There is some code on GitHub that I would like to use. The repository has no public declaration of license that I can find. But this particular project has over 200 forks and is a pretty active ...
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votes
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How does GitHub's "forking right" cope with an "All rights reserved" project?
The GitHub FAQ states (emphasis mine):
You're under no obligation to choose a license. It's your right not to
include one with your code or project, but please be aware of the
implications. ...
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votes
4
answers
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Security of GitHub.com
Recently some non-technical managers where I work found out that GitHub has a repository with code from "Hidden Tear" which is a ransomware application. The immediate reaction was to ban ...
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votes
6
answers
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"GitHub Stars" is a very useful metric. But for *what*?
Users on the GitHub website are able to "star" other people's repositories, thereby saving them in their list of Starred Repos. Some people use "stars" to indicate that they like a project, other ...
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votes
2
answers
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What's the right way to ask if a GitHub project is maintained?
It happens all the time. You come across a useful-looking project that has few or no recent commits, many long-open issues and pull requests, and nothing is changing. How do you usually ask if the ...
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47
votes
4
answers
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Report a security issue to a project hosted at GitHub
If I find a security issue in a Github project should I raise it in the project's issue tracker (where it's open to public scrutiny) or try to find private means to contact the repo's maintainer so ...
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votes
3
answers
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Is it socially acceptable to star your own repositories on GitHub?
While I'm searching for a new project to start contributing to, I often check the daily email I get from GitHub that lists the most popular repositories of the day and also the repositories starred by ...
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44
votes
2
answers
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Is GitHub "releases" section safe from malicious code? To be specific, does the binary match the code in a restrictive way?
When a developer creates a binary from the code and puts it in the releases section, does it match the code in a restrictive way so there is no chance that malicious code is compiled into it? How does ...
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31
votes
9
answers
19k
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If someone else uploads my GPL'd code to Github without my permission, do they not put it at risk of being stolen by Microsoft?
I was alarmed to see that someone uploaded one of my old GPL'd projects to Github.
Github has refused to remove it however, and suggests I contact the uploader who is completely anonymous and cannot ...
user15474
29
votes
3
answers
5k
views
When folks send me pull-requests on GitHub, what are their copyright/licensing terms by default?
Say I'm maintaining a GPLv3 project on GitHub with a LICENSE file, code headers and all. Now, a few folks made some code enhancements and sent me a pull-request. Does that automatically mean that they ...
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26
votes
5
answers
449
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How do I stop people from opening questions in the issue tracker?
I'm a collaborator in a pretty popular open source project hosted on GitHub. We have a problem where people constantly show up in the issue tracker and post questions about the library.
Dealing with ...
24
votes
3
answers
9k
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Can I ignore an open source license if I checkout a version that was released prior to the code having any license?
There's a package on Github that was released fully without any license and it stayed this way for close to a year. Then just recently after no updates since the initial commit, a License was added. ...
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23
votes
2
answers
30k
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Does the owner of the github repository own the copyright to the code?
Say I'm the only one uploading code to someone's private repository, do they own the copyright to the code? Or do I own the copyright to the code since I wrote it?
Would adding a license stating ...
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21
votes
5
answers
5k
views
How do I become a regular contributor to GitHub FOSS projects?
I've been foraging GitHub and making small one-off contributions to a variety of codebases that interest me. Typically, the projects that I want to contribute to are very large in nature and already ...
- 329
21
votes
1
answer
4k
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Forking GitHub repository (MIT): what references to the original author should remain intact?
I'll pick one of the most popular React boilerplates as an example here.
Assume I've forked it (the commits history till the fork date remains intact). According to the text of MIT license, the only ...
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20
votes
2
answers
6k
views
Is my code FLOSS just because it is published it on GitHub?
Does publishing my code on GitHub make it FLOSS automatically? Is there some license automatically assigned to it? Is it "technically or say literally, open source"?
user490
20
votes
2
answers
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How to handle a pattern of GitHub volunteers wanting to work on an issue then disappearing
Since I registered my project on Up For Grabs, I get a lot of novice volunteers, which is great as I like both the ideas of 1) improving the app 2) introducing novices to open source collaboration.
...
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19
votes
3
answers
10k
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Common practice on GitHub and license/copyright
I have been searching the web for quite some time now, but the plethora of opinions/comments/articles about licensing questions make it difficult to verify how trustworthy the various sources are. ...
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votes
3
answers
3k
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Are the new GitHub Terms of service a kiss of death for open source projects?
This recent post tends to say that the new GitHub TOS make most open source projects at odds to comply with both their FOSS licensing and the TOS.
Is this right?
Anything copyleft (GPL, AGPL, LGPL,...
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17
votes
3
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How do you work with open core code efficiently in Git?
MPL 2.0 license allows for using open source code in part of a 'larger work' (the closed source), where the 'larger work' is contained in separate files.
What is an efficient way to maintain an open ...
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votes
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What if somebody removed my name from MIT license
Case: I developed a software and uploaded it to Github with MIT license.
To apply the license, I created a LICENSE file with MIT license preamble (as mentioned in choosealicense.com)
Somebody cloned(...
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17
votes
2
answers
18k
views
How to apply MIT license in the GitHub repo for fully free project?
I have a public repository for an open source project on GitHub. It's main goal is to
make this code available to anybody (including myself) who may what to use it, for free, for all the time, with ...
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16
votes
3
answers
6k
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Rules/Guidelines about forking a project vs. creating a new one?
After reading these lines:
make a new github project (not a fork).
merge in the original repository.
In this Answer, I was wondering if there are any rules or guidelines when to fork a ...
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votes
3
answers
1k
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What tools on GitHub can help me do quality assurance for my projects?
I run a moderately successful open source project on GitHub (it is a privacy enhancing tool for public websites, based upon some PETs I developed for my thesis).
I am getting quite a few feature ...
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votes
1
answer
4k
views
If I translate/port a repository from one programming language to another, do I need to use the license file (Github) from that original project?
If I translate/port a repository from one programming language to another, do I need to use the license file (Github) from that original project? Or can I use my own license file.
I intend to use the ...
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15
votes
3
answers
31k
views
Is Firefox really open sourced?
I've been using Firefox for a while now and I am quite satisfied by it. I have always heard that it is open source, and I recently tried looking on GitHub to see if there was some sort of repo with ...
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votes
2
answers
5k
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Is it legal to remove a contributor's name from the licence?
User Mark makes repository A and releases the code under the MIT license with their name in the license. User Jeff forks the repository makes some improvements and adds their name to the license file (...
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15
votes
1
answer
1k
views
How to license software that implements a well-documented algorithm, but which does not borrow source from the official library?
I have implemented an RSYNC library based on the
technical report by Andrew Tridgell and Paul Mackerras. The library implementation does not borrow code from the official RSYNC library and does not ...
- 153
15
votes
2
answers
394
views
Starting (not forking) a new project based on a seemingly dead one
I recently forked a small github project to work on an open issue regarding the program's execution speed. I've achieved a substantial speedup, and I'm ready to submit a pull request.
However, the ...
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votes
2
answers
915
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Should I require that new issues be written in English?
English is considered by most to be a lingua franca for the developer community. From time to time issues written in another language are opened on GitHub projects that I manage, which I personally ...
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14
votes
4
answers
11k
views
Is keeping the forking link on a true fork necessary? (Github/GPL)
This question is about a true fork (with new name, different features, different objectives and not targeting a pull request).
When I am developing a new application based on an other project I ...
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votes
2
answers
2k
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What should I do if maintainers are unresponsive/how can I become a maintainer?
I have just a couple years of experience in software development and in the past few months have been dipping my toes in the water of making open source contributions. It was very exciting when my ...
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votes
1
answer
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How to deal with copyright infringement on GitHub
I have a public repository on GitHub. Some of the code was copy-and-pasted into another repository without keeping Licence headers and without any other back-linking to the original repository.
How ...
- 243
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votes
2
answers
4k
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MIT License Violation caused by copying source code partially or fully
I have a project on GitHub licensed under MIT. Some other person contributed to another unknown-to-me organisation on GitHub two months ago with a commit which copies a part of my code with just a few,...
- 243
13
votes
1
answer
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views
Can I resubmit someone else's pull request if he does not sign CLA?
Someone helped with progress upstream at an open source project I really rely on. He basically did what I was not capable of and now I am waiting for his pull request to be merged and included in ...
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votes
4
answers
3k
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Etiquette for an incorrect Pull Request
I recently made a PR on GitHub to a repo of a tutorial since I thought one of the comments was incorrect; but I was mistaken.
One of the contributors commented asking how it was incorrect. What's the ...
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votes
2
answers
2k
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Who is responsible on resolving conflicts on different PRs?
I'm the owner of the code in github and responsible of merging PRs in the main upper stream. I have two different PRs from different two contributers which have conflicts in some files. Who is ...
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votes
1
answer
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Should I use my own license in a fork of another GitHub repository, which I've revamped completely?
Background
I am the owner of an open-source theme for Hugo named hugo-dream-plus which, as the name implies, is an upgraded version of hugo-theme-dream.
Note that hugo-theme-dream is licensed ...
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11
votes
2
answers
20k
views
What is the correct way to add license information to source code?
I have recently released some projects on GitHub and its catching people's attention(I had released earlier too but they were just for learning and didn't carry much weight).
But I think I made a ...
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votes
2
answers
8k
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Must author's name be included in GNU GPL v3?
I noticed the GNU GPL v3 license created by Github is very different than the one created by Netbeans. One of the differences is the first line in Netbean's is Copyright (C) 2016 hotwisp Must the GPL ...
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476
views
Github etiquette: Is it polite to help for issue triage?
I have been wandering in the issues of a particular open-source project hosted on Github for a few months, as well as related projects.
I'm not a contributor myself (except for some typos in the ...
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answer
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License to use for smaller GitHub repos
I frequently create programs to process my local files in some fashion. About half of them are Bash shell scripts under 100 lines, others may be longer, include multiple files, or even be in other ...
user7180
11
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Is a license bound to a commit?
Lets say there is some software hosted in a public github git repository under some license A. The owner and copyright-holder now decides to relicense the source-code to another license B. If i would ...
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votes
1
answer
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How to license website hosted on GitHub?
Assuming the following situation:
I am having a GitHub open-source repository, licensed under the MIT license
I want to document the software on a website with a logo and usage examples, hosted open-...
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votes
2
answers
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Who owns code in a GitHub organization?
I made a project in a GitHub organization and made some commits there. Nobody else touched the repository. Since the default licence on GitHub is all rights reserved, do I maintain all rights to the ...
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votes
2
answers
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Who will be the copyright owner of a new file in a forked repository on github?
Let's say there is a MIT Licensed repository on github, then by definition all the files that belongs to the repository is owned by the copyright holder of the repository.
But if I fork the project ...
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votes
4
answers
488
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How to indicate that I also have an issue on github?
On GitHub issue page, there doesn't seem to be a place to show that I also share this problem (e.g. upvote, +1) to let the developers prioritize this issue.
Is there a way to do this? If know, how do ...
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votes
1
answer
3k
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Do Contributors Own Copyright After Sending Contributions?
I have a GitHub repository which its license is GPL. Although of this, in the "about" window of my program, I mentioned that I own the copyright (like this: © My name, 2017). And I added the GPL text ...
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votes
1
answer
771
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Can a GitHub Organization assert copyright?
I started an OSS project with a fellow coding enthusiast in 2014 (that has since pretty much left the project, although as far as I can tell he's still following everything that's going on). Since the ...
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10
votes
1
answer
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Choosing a License for a Tutorial Site
I apologize in advance for what is probably a dumb question, but I'm trying to do this the right way from the beginning.
I'm putting together a coding tutorial site, and my main question boils down ...
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