Bug#741303: libfeel++1: libfeelpp.so.1.0.0 links with both GPL-licensed and GPL-incompatible libraries

[Christophe Prud'homme]

Dear Francesco Poli

What is the state of this bug ? any progress with respect to scotch
licensing ?

this is a really painful situation !

are petsc and all libraries (based on umfpack) related to this bug issues
marked for removal from testing ?

have you marked also octave with an RC bug ? it  uses suitesparse/umfpack
and scotch [1]
Basically all libraries/programs using suitesparse/umfpack should have this
bug, no ?
I think Libreoffice/Openoffice  are using suitesparse(and scotch) and glpk
so it should also have the RC bug.

I guess that the technical solution would be to get rid of umfpack but then
that would disrupt a lot of software !

 1. http://packages.qa.debian.org/o/octave.html

Best regards
C.


On Tue, Mar 11, 2014 at 12:05 AM, Francesco Poli (wintermute) <
invernomuto at paranoici.org> wrote:

> Package: libfeel++1
> Version: 1:0.95.0-final-2
> Severity: serious
> Justification: Policy 2.3
> User: debian-science-maintainers at lists.alioth.debian.org
> Usertags: scotch-license-issues
>
> Hello,
> the library /usr/lib/libfeelpp.so.1.0.0 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...
>
>   => libglpk.so.36, which is under the GNU GPL v3 or later
>
>   => libgmsh.so.2, which is under the GNU GPL v2 or later (with some
>      exceptions, but not regarding SCOTCH or CeCILL-C)
>
> This seems to mean that package libfeel++1 includes a file which
> 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 have also noticed that package feel++-apps includes several files
> which link with the above mentioned combination of libraries.
>
> I think the possible solutions to the issue for feel++ 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, GLPK, Gmsh)
> 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 said in other bug reports, the best solution is (A):
> I am thus renewing 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 full story.
>
> Thanks for your time!
>
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an
> email to feelpp-devel+unsubscribe at feelpp.org.
>



-- 
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