Re: Improve GDB's first user experience by reducing "print_gdb_version" output

[Florian Weimer via Gdb <gdb@sourceware.org>]

* Mark Wielaard:

> Hi,
>
> On Tue, May 27, 2025 at 05:38:57PM -0400, Paul Smith via Gdb wrote:
>> On Tue, 2025-05-27 at 17:43 -0300, Guinevere Larsen via Gdb wrote:
>> > I'm sending this here in case there is some rule that forces us to
>> > write the copyright or free software status at initialization, before
>> > spending the time to turn this into a patch.
>> 
>> I had remembered that interactive programs should generate copyright
>> information at startup, but the most I can find in the current GNU
>> Maintainer's manual is
>
> The GPL itself contains the recommendation at the end (after the
> actual terms and conditions) in the section "How to Apply These Terms
> to Your New Programs". It is even shorter than Guinevere's suggestion,
> it recommends outputting just 4 lines:

It also contains a rule that if the notice is present, you must not
remove it and distribute the result:

|   An interactive user interface displays "Appropriate Legal Notices"
| to the extent that it includes a convenient and prominently visible
| feature that (1) displays an appropriate copyright notice, and (2)
| tells the user that there is no warranty for the work (except to the
| extent that warranties are provided), that licensees may convey the
| work under this License, and how to view a copy of this License.  If
| the interface presents a list of user commands or options, such as a
| menu, a prominent item in the list meets this criterion.

|    d) If the work has interactive user interfaces, each must display
|    Appropriate Legal Notices; however, if the Program has interactive
|    interfaces that do not display Appropriate Legal Notices, your
|    work need not make them do so.

I don't know what the rules are for removing it upstream.  The logic for
suppressing a similar message in Emacs for subsequent runs is quite
involved.

Thanks,
Florian