Re: How to properly handle contradicting licenses in a single file (aclocal.m4)

On Thu, Jun 04, 2026 at 08:25:39AM +0200, Simon Josefsson wrote:
>Soren Stoutner <[email protected]> writes:
>> On Wednesday, June 3, 2026 4:32:03 AM Mountain Standard Time Marc Haber wrote:
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> aclocal.m4 is obviously built by autotools by concatting segments that
>>> might have contradicting licenses. For example, the aclocal.m4 of the
>>> aide package has AT LEAST the following copyright statements in
>>> different points of the SAME file:
>>
>> This is how I handle it for courier:
>>
>> https://salsa.debian.org/debian/courier/-/blob/master/debian/copyright?
>> ref_type=heads#L77-95
>
>Other than that, I think your debian/copyright snippet is a great
>example of how to deal with this if you can't avoid the file: list all
>copyright holders and mention all involved licenses using AND clause.

I was not aware of the possibility to use and in the License line. I 
think that is one of the better hidden features of the specification.

/usr/share/doc/debian-policy/copyright-format-1.0.txt.gz Chapter 7.2 is 
recommended reading.

Greetings
Marc