Size

• The source code is more than 100 MB.
• If the source code also exceeds 100 MB when it is compressed

Source Control

• There is no publicly available source control (e.g. cvs, svn, bzr, git)
• There is publicly available source control, but:
  • There is no web viewer for it
  • There is no documentation on how to use it for new users
  • You've written your own source control for this code
  • You don't actually use the existing source control

Building From Source

• There is no documentation on how to build from source
• Documentation exists on how to build from source, but it doesn't work
• Your source is configured…
  • …with a handwritten shell script
  • …by editing flat text config files
  • …by editing code header files manually
  • Your source isn't configurable
• You source builds with…
  • …something that isn't GNU Make
  • …a third-party proprietary build tools
  • …something you wrote for this code

Bundling

• Your source only comes with other code projects that it depends on
• Your source code cannot be built without first building the bundled code bits
• You have modified those other bundled code bits

Libraries

• Your code only builds static libraries
• Your code can build shared libraries, but only unversioned ones
• Your source does not try to use system libraries if present

System Install

• Your code tries to install into /opt or /usr/local without explicitly telling it to do so
• Your code has no "make install"
• Your code doesn't work outside of the source directory

Code Oddities

• Your code uses Windows line breaks ("DOS format" files)
• Your code depends on specific compiler feature functionality
• Your code depends on specific compiler bugs
• Your code depends on Microsoft Visual Anything

Communication

• Your project does not announce releases on a mailing list
• Your project does not have a mailing list
• Your project does not have a bug tracker
• Your project does not have a website
• Your project is sourceforge vaporware

Releases

• Your project does not do sanely versioned releases (Major, Minor)
• Your project does not do versioned releases
• Your project does not do releases
• Your project only does releases as attachments in web forum posts
• Your releases are only in
  • .zip format
  • OSX .zip format
  • .rar format
  • .arj format
  • an encapsulation format that you invented
• Your release does not unpack into a versioned top-level directory (e.g. glibc-2.4.2/)
• Your release does not unpack into a top-level directory (e.g. glibc/)
• Your release unpacks into an absurd number of directories (e.g. home/johndoe/glibc-svn/tarball/glibc/src/)

History

• Your code is a fork of another project
• Your primary developers were not involved with the parent project
• Until open sourcing it, your code was proprietary for:
  • 1-2 years
  • 3-5 years
  • 6-10 years
  • 10+ years

Licensing

• Your code does not have per-file licensing
• Your code contains inherent license incompatibilities
• Your code does not have any notice of licensing intent
• Your code doesn't include a copy of the license text
• Your code doesn't have a license

Documentation

• Your code doesn't have a changelog
• Your code doesn't have any documentation
• Your website doesn't have any documentation