What files do I need to put the header comment in for adding GPL to a C# project?
Does form generated code require it?
Does just need to be in every *.cs file?
Is there a resource or in-depth list of language-specific steps required to add GPL to any kind of project?
You don't realy need to add a GPL notice to every file. You can specify the license of the entire project in a license file in the root folder and that's it.
Edit: The recommended practice is to to add the notice in every file. But not doing so will not invalidate the license or change the meaning of it.
GPL is a license - there is no 'requirement' to include the actual text of the license in every single source file.
Simply provide a file called license.txt which contains the license in your project should be more than enough I would have thought.
If I am wrong, please tell me where you got this requirement from?
Monodevelop suggests adding the following to each file:
${FileName}
Copyright (C) ${Year} [name of author]
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details. You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA
Tip: Resharper for Visual Studio has nice feature of specifying the file header (Options-Languages-Common-File Header Text).
If you specify it, and then perform "Code Cleanup" on the entire solution, every *.cs file will get updated header.
That's how I add license header to my open-source projects,
The canonical answer is in the GPL Howto:
Whichever license you plan to use, the process involves adding two elements to each source file of your program: a copyright notice (such as “Copyright 1999 Terry Jones”), and a statement of copying permission, saying that the program is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License (or the Lesser GPL).
The recommended header for applying the GPL is:
Copyright 200X My Name
This file is part of Foobar.
Foobar is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
Foobar is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with Foobar. If not, see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/.
Yes, it SHOULD be added to every file, since you cannot legally depend upon the assumption that every recipient receives your work as a whole. And, no, it doesn't have to be the complete license text.