It is derived largely from the copyright and licensing details given in LicensingStuff and adds further version information. Version information is extracted from CVS using RCS keywords as usual.

Part of the boilerplate (particularly version information) is in the form of a javadoc comment. This is so that readers can correlate source and documentation with each other and with particular releases of myGrid. The remaining boilerplate is in the form of a block (/* ... */) comment, rather than rest-of-line (// ...) comments, to make it easier for text editors to 'fold' this sections from view.

If your group or institution already has a convention for all or part of the necessary information, then you may continue to use that convention, extended where necessary.

Note that the LGPL licensing information is at the start of the file, ahead of all java and javadoc source. The copyright information is repeated in the LGPL block and the class/interface javadoc comment.

/*
 *  Copyright 2006 <copyright owner: one line per contributor>
 *
 *  This file is part of myGrid.  Further information, and the
 *  latest version, can be found at http://www.mygrid.org.uk
 *
 *  myGrid is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
 *  it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as
 *  published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2.1
 *  of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
 *
 *  myGrid 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 Lesser General Public License for more details.
 *
 *  You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public
 *  License along with myGrid; if not, write to the Free Software
 *  Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307  USA
 */

package ...;
import ...;

/**
 *
 * @author <original author's name>
 * @version $Id: JavaBoilerplate.txt,v 1.4 2006/08/15 12:35:11 StianSoiland Exp $
 *
 * Created: <date of first creation>
 *
 * Copyright 2003 <copyright owner: one line per contributor>
 *
 * <class-specific comments>
 */

class Foo {
    ....
}

Change Log

Revision 1.3

Replaced occurrences of "Foobar" with "myGrid".

Revision 1.2

Placed LGPL details ahead of package and import statements.

Revision 1.1

Original version.

-- NickSharman - 18 Nov 2002