snapd should provide a means to access package license information
Affects | Status | Importance | Assigned to | Milestone | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
snapd |
Confirmed
|
Medium
|
Unassigned |
Bug Description
Snap packages should ideally include licensing information. Good practice can be encouraged here if the `snap` command supports an option to get that licensing information, and `snapcraft` provides a standardized way to include it in the snap.
I would suggest that `snapcraft` request that a `license.txt` file be placed in the `snap/` dir of the package definition alongside `snapcraft.yaml`, with a deprecation message if it is not present. `snapcraft` could then place that file in the `meta/` directory of the resulting snap package.
The `snap` command could then provide either a separate `license` command to output the license.txt file, or a flag to `snap info` to provide/append the license information.
Yes, we definitely want to track license information inside the snap format in a proper location. We want to support both basic cases such as just listing a well known name, custom licenses, and all the way up to requiring an explicit agreement with the provided text.
We're not there yet, but this is in our short to medium term roadmap for sure.