Advice on file header

PHP
1

Since I’ve switched to classes my code is more reusable and I’ve developed a framework of sorts. I’d like to comment up the files properly so wanted your opinions on what to include. Based on PEAR I have this:

/*!
 *
 * File/Class Name
 *
 * File/Class Description
 *
 * Author              My Name | www.mywebsite.co.uk
 * Version             1.0
 * Last Updated        7 September 2013
 *
 * @vendor  VendorName
 * @package PackageName
 *
 * Released under the MIT license
 * Copyright (c) 2013 My Name | www.mywebsite.co.uk
 *
 * Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
 * of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
 * in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
 * to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
 * copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
 * furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
 *
 * The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in
 * all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
 *
 * THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
 * IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
 * FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
 * AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
 * LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
 * OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN
 * THE SOFTWARE.
 *
 */

Do you think it’s overkill to put the license in each file? I notice some do this but JQuery, for example, just has a link to the license on their site and Symfony tells them to read the file.

Have I missed anything out?

I don’t use Git yet though plan to lean. One additional thing I’d like to know is: if you’re not using version control how to do you keep track of what was added, removed and fixed in each version? Do you just keep a text file logging everything?

Thanks.

2

IMHO each file should at least state which license it is under and have a link to an online copy.

I suppose the text isn’t all that much, but I think what I would do is include it if the file might be used stand-alone otherwise put it in a separate text file if it’s part of a package.

I never really paid notice to how often any license changed, and I don’t know if software written under one version is “stuck” or if newer versions supercede the original older version.

I have put changelogs in the head comments before, but that can get lengthy in time so now I keep them in separate changelog files.

3

Good advice, thanks.