Bug 322225 - Kdevelop Subversion plugin is missing? - Licensing Issues
Summary: Kdevelop Subversion plugin is missing? - Licensing Issues
Status: RESOLVED DOWNSTREAM
Alias: None
Product: kdevplatform
Classification: Developer tools
Component: subversion (show other bugs)
Version: git master
Platform: Ubuntu Linux
: NOR normal
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: kdevelop-bugs-null
URL:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2013-07-11 07:21 UTC by Alex
Modified: 2015-01-28 12:27 UTC (History)
8 users (show)

See Also:
Latest Commit:
Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:


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Description Alex 2013-07-11 07:21:03 UTC
Hello KDevelop crew
I tried searching the web but there's no information on my problem at all.
Is the Subversion plugin dropped in 4.5?  It is missing under Settings -> Plugins -> Version Control and no sight of any Subversion operation in the context menu on files and dirs in Project Tree.

I had 4.4.1 and it was working fine.
KDevelop installed from kubuntu-backports ppa. 

Here are the versions installed:
kdevelop   4:4.5.1-0ubuntu1~ubuntu13.04~ppa1
kdevelop-data    4:4.5.1-0ubuntu1~ubuntu13.04~ppa1
kdevplatform7-libs   4:4.5.1-0ubuntu1~ubuntu13.04~ppa1
libsubmlime    4:4.5.1-0ubuntu1~ubuntu13.04~ppa1

subversion    1.7.5-1ubuntu3.1

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Start Kdevelop and create\open a project fetched from svn
2. Under projects toolview open a context menu of a file or a folder and see the "subversion" menu item is missing
3. Open "settings -> plugins" and see that "Subversion" plugin is missing at all
Comment 1 Alex 2013-07-11 08:14:18 UTC
sorry
libsublime7   version is 1.5.1-0ubuntu1~ubuntu13.04~ppa1
Comment 2 Milian Wolff 2013-07-11 22:10:10 UTC
Afaik it's not packaged there due to licensing issues which need to be resolved. Best way would either be an alternate SVN library we could use. Alternatively the distros might package it nevertheless and put it into an "unsafe" repo or whatever, like universe or whatever it is called in debian based distros.
Comment 3 Lisandro Damián Nicanor Pérez Meyer 2013-09-26 14:40:03 UTC
@Milian: if it is a license issue, there is no repo in which distros can push it. It needs to be solved upstream.
Comment 4 Andreas Cord-Landwehr 2013-09-29 09:47:45 UTC
Change product to kdevplatform, since we are talking about folder kdevplatform.git/plugins/subversion
Comment 5 Andreas Cord-Landwehr 2013-09-29 10:08:44 UTC
The overall problem consists of two slightly separate issues (see below), here the introduction part:

The kdevplatform subversion support (living in directory plugins/subversion) links to the following shared libraries:
                    ${SUBVERSION_LIBRARIES}
                    ${KDE4_KDEUI_LIBS}
                    ${KDE4_KIO_LIBS}
                    ${KDE4_KTEXTEDITOR_LIBS}
                    kdevplatforminterfaces
                    kdevplatformvcs
                    kdevplatformoutputview
                    kdevplatformproject
                    kdevplatformlanguage
                    ${KDE4_THREADWEAVER_LIBRARIES}
                    ${KDE4_KPARTS_LIBRARY}
and includes the GPL-3+ licensed sources from plugins/subversion/kdesvncpp.
From the above libraries at the time of release of kdevplatform 1.5.1 the library kdevplatformvcs was licensed as GPL-2-only (due to some containing files begin GPL-2-only). This issue was resolved in commit abc5cabfa417a6e3369e4575626eccc4879af02b and 7e25612139ca63da20977078767780b76b91e290 (applied only to master), given this library to become GPL-2-or-any-later.

(Another issue that made kdevplatformoutputview become GPL-3-only was fixed in fbed9bc2665de2ca23d51df51e065abb0838fa8b in both master and branch 1.5)

Looking at the licenses as in the master branch, we can argue now:

1. license incompatability:
The license issue is resolved in master: All linked libraries are either LGPL-2.* or GPL-2+ now. This gives that the subversion plugin can again legally be build and linked.

2. KDE license policy
However, http://techbase.kde.org/Policies/Licensing_Policy disallows the use of GPL-2 incompatible licenses within KDE sources. This issue can only be fixed by relicensing the whole GPL3+ code of plugins/subversion/kdesvncpp or switching to another library.
Comment 6 Egor 2013-11-28 11:47:57 UTC
Is there now some workaround to use SVN integrated in KDevelop 4.5?

Is it really the will of subversion or kdesvncpp creators that KDevelop should not contain svn plugin? Is there any hope that relicensing the library will be the Cristmas mystery and svn plugin will come back soon?

Thank you ^_^
Comment 7 Andreas Cord-Landwehr 2013-11-28 18:21:23 UTC
@Egor/Comment 6: The workaround is to simply compile kdevplatform by yourself without the distro-patch that disables compilation of the subversion plugin. Since the last patch release the important licenses (see Comment 5) that caused the legal problems are fixed. Actually, I would expect distros to remove the patch when updating to 1.5.2.

A different issue is IMO the situation of the GPL3+ licensed code inside of plugins/subversion in accordance with the KDE Licensing Policy (though not a legal distribution problem).
Comment 8 Graham Bull 2015-01-28 11:14:03 UTC
Why not move the Subversion plugin out of the Kdevelop source?  The plugin becomes independent of Kdevelop, packaged and installed separately, and has a license that's compatible with Subversion's, but continues to be maintained by the Kdevelop team.
Comment 9 Kevin Funk 2015-01-28 11:51:12 UTC
Just trying to resolve this downstream... In fact I consider the licensing issues to be resolved, and Debian should just ship this plugin.
Comment 10 Andreas Cord-Landwehr 2015-01-28 12:02:50 UTC
This issue was resolved upstream long time ago, and AFAIK distros actually ships the SVN plugin (at least when using version >= 1.5.2). Also, meanwhile the KDE license policy changed to allow GPL3+ only code (though in that case a clear licensing information for that must be given).

So IMO, if the problem is still present anywhere, it is a distro bug and has to be handled there, e.g., by updating to 1.5.2. And hence this report should be closed.
Comment 11 Kevin Funk 2015-01-28 12:17:36 UTC
Yep. Acknowledged.

Note:
Debian already ships the plugin (checked via packages.debian.org)
Ubuntu doesn't because of a packaging issue (checked via packages.ubuntu.com), claryfing with jriddell now
Comment 12 Kevin Funk 2015-01-28 12:22:49 UTC
Filed a bug downstream: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/kdevplatform/+bug/1415451

I consider this one here solved.
Comment 13 Graham Bull 2015-01-28 12:27:29 UTC
Thanks for the clarification guys. I'm using Kdevelop 4.6 on Kubuntu 14.04, but haven't got the plugin :(