Re: GPL-3+ licensed test fixture (SVG/metadata) in BSD-3 project

Soren Stoutner <[email protected]> Mon, 16 Mar 2026 12:15:35 -0700

Newsgroups	gmane.linux.debian.devel.legal
Organization	Debian
Message-ID	<4828039.44csPzL39Z@soren-desktop>

On Sunday, March 15, 2026 3:06:12 AM Mountain Standard Time Carl Keinath wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I have a licensing question regarding a Debian package. The upstream
> project is licensed under BSD-3-Clause. To run autopkgtests, I added a
> minimal cursor theme under debian/tests/. It consists of an SVG image
> and a metadata file (.hl) used as input data by the tests.
> 
> These files are licensed under GPL-3+. During the tests they are
> converted into a compiled theme format (.hlc), which the test binaries
> then read. The files are not part of the upstream source code, are not
> linked into the program, and are not installed in any binary packages.
> 
> Could including these GPL-3+ test data files under debian/tests/
> cause the resulting test binaries, or the source package as a whole,
> to be considered a derivative work of GPL-3+?
> 
> PS: please CC me, as I am not subscribed.

No, I don’t think adding GPL-3+ test data to debian/tests makes the shipped binary 
packages GPL-3+ (if someone is aware of a way that it would make the shipped binary 
packages GPL-3+, please correct me).  It does force everything that runs the Debian tests 
to comply with the GPL-3+, but that is not a problem for Debian, as our testing 
infrastructure handles many GPL-3+ files.

I think you are fine as long as the licensing of these files is correctly identified in debian/
copyright.

-- 
Soren Stoutner
[email protected]

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