Re: Non-DFSG license in build files

On Tue, Apr 14, 2026 at 07:49:23PM -0400, Moshe Piekarski wrote:

> I am attempting to package a program in which several source files contain
> licensing information similar to he following.
> 
> "
> 
>  Can be used freely for non-commercial purposes.
>  Copyright 1990 G.D.C. Kuiken. e-mail: [email protected]
> 
> "
> 
> However these files are all only part of the build system (compile file run
> source through it save output) or test system
> 
> (run file A through package binary compare to file B), and are thus not
> included in the final binary package.
> 
> Are there any issues with this?

If you plan to put the package in main, those files may not be part of
the orig.tar.gz, and if they are really part of the build system, the
package will not build without them.

The GPL considers the build system to be an integral part of the
source code of the program. This is a quote from GPL-2:

 The source code for a work means the preferred form of the work for
 making modifications to it.  For an executable work, complete source
 code means all the source code for all modules it contains, plus any
 associated interface definition files, plus the scripts used to
 control compilation and installation of the executable.

(here "the scripts" = Makefiles and similar things)

and I believe that's the spirit of the DFSG in general as well.


However, if those files are only used for tests, you could exclude
them from orig.tar.gz and have a working package at least.

Thanks.