Opennovation.org Free Software Copyright/License Audits

Several major engineering free software projects have multiple licenses and authors. Debian requires a complete accounting of all of the licenses in a given project before uploading. For some projects like OpenCASCADE, the task of doing a full audit would be daunting for one developer. This page is here to coordinate that effort.

Babel

• Description: compiler (skeleton/stub generator) and runtime for SIDL, the Scientific Interface Definition Language.
• License: LGPL
• Issues: the tarball ships with a user manual without source and multiple .jar files with different licenses.
• Debian package status: .dfsg tarball omits the user manual and .jar files; ACCEPTED April 14, 2008. Upstream has promised a user manual source tarball.

hypre

• Description: set of sparse matrix preconditioner algorithm implementations for solving linear systems of equations.
• License: LGPL
• Issues: .pdf and .html files in docs/ without source.
• Debian package status: "rejected, i think we are missing the source for the files in docs/*. Especially the pdf files, but also that for the html pages (generated by doc++ entries in them)", working on .dfsg, upload will follow Babel acceptance. Upstream has promised documentation source in the next version, due out in May or June 2008.

OpenCASCADE

• Description: extensive library for CAD applications.
• License: OpenCASCADE
• Issues:
  • Unusual tarball format requires Java to unpack.
  • Non-free binaries sprinkled in various directories.
  • Non-free triangle program presence.
  • Enormous size will require a lot of effort to sort through!
  • License may or may not be free.
  • Upstream interprets license as non-free.
• Debian package status: builds and works for the most part, upload pending license/author audit.
• Audit file

Salomé

• Description: graphical pre- and post-processing framework for finite element simulations.
• License: LGPL
• Issues:
  • Tons of code and documentation may or may not be free.
  • Numerous authors and copyright holders.
  • Depends on Qt (GPL) and OpenCASCADE (above), requiring that the OpenCASCADE license be GPL-compatible.
• Debian package status: builds and works so-so, upload effort will start after OpenCASCADE's acceptance.

Code_Aster

• Description: finite element software with lots of constitutive models and solver options.
• License: GPL
• Issues: unknown
• Debian package status: astk has major problems, but aster builds.

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