upgrading to LGPLv3+

[andyli]

Current the LICENSE file in this repo states that opam is LGPLv2+, but I found that there are 2 files, src/core/opamVersionCompare.ml and src/core/opamVersionCompare.mli, are LGPLv3+.

I would suggest upgrading the license of the whole opam to LGPLv3+ to be consistence.

[AltGr]

There is a reason for it, see e.g. #2573

In short,

1. we use the OCaml "linking exception", which isn't properly defined on LGPLv3, and has actually caused us to have an unsound license in the past
2. it's convenient to have (mostly) the same license as OCaml

The two files you point to are from Dose which, it seems, still has the license bug. I should see with the authors (@abate / Ralf Treinen) to have it fixed.

EDIT: dose license: https://scm.gforge.inria.fr/anonscm/gitweb?p=dose/dose.git;a=blob;f=COPYING;hb=HEAD

[andyli]

I see, thanks for the explanation. Would you keep this issue open until the opamVersionCompare.ml* files are replaced/removed?

[andyli]

@abate It would be great if we can have your approval of re-licensing the two files to the same as opam, such that we can package opam for fedora as LGPLv2 (with linking exception): https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1501992

[AltGr]

Actually, digging through my e-mail, I already had a formal agreement from Ralf to switch the license of these two files to LGPLv2+linking exception ; so the situation is solved, I just forgot to change the headers. Thanks for pointing it out!

[andyli]

Perfect! Thanks!

[AltGr]

Fixed by #3126