Bug#741204: getdp is GPL-licensed, but links with both GPL-licensed and GPL-incompatible libraries

[Francesco Poli (wintermute)]

Package: getdp
Version: 2.4.2-1
Severity: serious
Justification: Policy 2.3
User: debian-science-maintainers at lists.alioth.debian.org
Usertags: scotch-license-issues

Hello,
the program /usr/bin/getdp is under the GNU GPL v2 (only? or later?
the debian/copyright is not too clear on this aspect) and links with:

  => libumfpack.so.5.6.2, which is under the GNU GPL v2 or later

  => libcholmod.so.2.1.2, which has parts under the GNU GPL v2 or later

  => libptscotch-5.1.so and libptscotcherr-5.1.so, which are released
     under the GPL-incompatible terms of the CeCILL-C v1.0 license

  => libpetsc.so.3.4.2 and libslepc.so.3.4.2, which, though not being
     under strong copyleft or under copyleft at all, link, in their
     turn, with the above three libraries...

This seems to mean that package getdp includes a file which is
GPL-licensed and links with both GPL-licensed and GPL-incompatible
libraries.

Please refer to the similar bug #740463 for some further details about
the SCOTCH licensing issues.

I think the possible solutions to the issue for getdp are, in
descending order of desirability:

 (A) SCOTCH copyright holders should be contacted and persuaded to
re-license (or dual-license) it under GPLv2-or-later-compatible terms

 (B) SCOTCH should be substituted with a GPLv2-or-later-compatible
replacement, if any is available (METIS seems to be at least
GPLv3-or-later-compatible, see https://bugs.debian.org/740463#15 )

 (C) GPL-licensed library (such as UMFPACK and CHOLMOD) copyright
holders, as well as GetDP copyright holders, should be asked to relax
the copyleft (for instance by switching to the LGPL v2.1) or add
license exceptions that give permission to link their works with
code released under CeCILL-C v1.0


As mentioned in previous bug reports, the best solution is (A):
I therefore renew my call for help to push in the direction of
{re|dual}-licensing SCOTCH under the GNU LGPL v2.1:
please see https://bugs.debian.org/740463#5 for the details.

Thanks for your time!