Bug#740463: libelmersolver-6.1.so links with both GPL-licensed and GPL-incompatible libraries

Francesco Poli invernomuto at paranoici.org
Sun Mar 2 09:12:26 UTC 2014


On Sat, 1 Mar 2014 23:50:15 +0100 Anton Gladky wrote:

> (D) link elmer against libmetis and libmumps to escape linkage
> against SCOTCH. If it is possible, of course.

Hi Anton,
yes, METIS (the serial version) seems to be under the Apache License
v2.0 which is compatible with the GNU GPL v3 (but not with the
GNU GPL v2). Hence, as long as libelmersolver-6.1 is not linked with
other Apache-v2-incompatible libraries, this fourth strategy could
also solve the licensing issue.
Of course, assuming it is technically feasible, as you said.

Please note that, although METIS is Free Software under the Apache
License v2.0, its parallel version ParMETIS seems [1] to be restricted
to educational/research purposes, thus being non-free software.

[1] http://glaros.dtc.umn.edu/gkhome/metis/parmetis/download

It would be great if someone managed to get in touch with ParMETIS
copyright holders and persuaded them to re-license it under DFSG-free
and GPL-compatible terms.
The Apache License v2.0 would be very good, but it would be even
greater, if the chosen license were GPL-v2-and-v3-compatible (such as
the GNU GPL v2 or later, the GNU LGPL v2.1, or even the Expat license
or the 3-clause BSD license...).

Anton, do you have any contact with ParMETIS copyright holders?


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