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    It can't be mandatory because there are systems, like Smalltalk images, which don't express source code as files. They say "safest" and "should", not "must." What they recommend is an easily understood guideline with little chance of someone making an error, but it is definitely not "practically mandatory." Commented Dec 18, 2011 at 18:33
  • I agree, and I said "source file" on purpose. Actually, CAIA's system is a bit like Smalltalk: the image is in data files, and the CAIA "source files" I mentionned are generated C files. However, my GCC MELT (a branch of GCC, under FSF copyright) is also meta-programmed, and I do take care to generate copyright notice comments in generated C files (and I put them in hand-written C & MELT code). Commented Dec 18, 2011 at 18:36
  • Point taken. I know now one paragraph about MELT. In general it's best that generated files include the copyright notice as it's very hard to "attach" the license otherwise. Eg, "yacc" and "lex" are restricted in what they can do. Commented Dec 18, 2011 at 18:57
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    From personal experience: to have a project accepted on Savannah you have to have a license in every file. Commented Sep 4, 2017 at 13:00
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    Just to clarify, according to the GPL FAQ, #LicenseCopyOnly and #NoticeInSourceFile at the time of this writing, it's not required to include the How to Apply... text to every source file; notice the language uses "should" and not "must". However, they do strongly recommend that you follow this practice. Commented Jul 13, 2019 at 8:29