為什麼 GNU ‘bc’ 有這麼長的版權字元串？

當您在 GNU 系統上執行 ‘bc’ 時，它會列印出以下文本：

~$ bc
bc 1.07.1
Copyright 1991-1994, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2012-2017 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.

與其他幾個 GNU 實用程序相比：

~$ gcc --version
gcc (Debian 8.3.0-6) 8.3.0
Copyright (C) 2018 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.  There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

和

~$ grep --version
grep (GNU grep) 3.3
Copyright (C) 2018 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

和

~$ ls --version
ls (GNU coreutils) 8.30
Copyright (C) 2018 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

bc 是否有任何理由以這種方式列出所有版權日期，而不僅僅是使用“Copyright 2017 Free Software Foundation, Inc.”？

bc遵循推薦的 GNU 版權聲明實踐，其中包括列出每個出版年份，儘管此處的版權聲明列出的年份比所見bc版本（甚至包括dc發行版）更多。

其他工具僅列出上次發布的年份，使用gnulib 的version_etc功能，該功能僅列印 gnulib 中最後更新的年份。

另請參閱版權聲明必須在項目處於活動狀態時定期更新？

引用自：https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/566290