{"id":"GPL-3.0-or-later-with-Autoconf-exception-3.0","title":"GNU General Public License v3.0 or later with Autoconf exception 3.0","reviewed_on":"2026-09-22","reviewer":"Giray Havur","text_source":"https://raw.githubusercontent.com/spdx/license-list-data/main/text/GPL-3.0-or-later.txt","text_retrieved":true,"verdict":"created","summary":"The record models GPL version 3 or later with the Autoconf configure script exception 3.0, the combination GNU Autoconf carries. It keeps every statement of the GPL-3.0-or-later record and adds one permission for the output of Autoconf, which may be distributed under terms of the recipient's choice. The condition that voids the exception for a modified Autoconf has no term and is quoted.","findings":[{"rubric":1,"severity":"info","field":"spdx:licenseId","description":"File name, record identifier, IRI local name and title agree. spdx:licenseId carries the SPDX expression \"GPL-3.0-or-later WITH Autoconf-exception-3.0\": the base identifier, one space, WITH in capitals, one space, the exception identifier. No record in the library carried an expression before, so the SPDX mapping and the spdx route have to accept the space and the keyword.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":1,"severity":"info","field":"cc:legalcode","description":"cc:legalcode points at the text of the base licence, https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.html, because that is the licence the record models. dct:source points at the SPDX page of the exception, https://spdx.org/licenses/Autoconf-exception-3.0.html, because that is where the additional permission is published.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":2,"severity":"info","field":"odrl:target","description":"odrl:target is the one the base record carries: an odrl:AssetCollection of dct:type dcmitype:Software. The exception is about program files, so nothing changes.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":3,"severity":"major","field":"odrl:permission","description":"Section 1 of the exception reads: \"You have permission to propagate output of Autoconf, even if such propagation would otherwise violate the terms of GPLv3.\" The purpose clause says what that is for: \"The purpose of this Exception is to allow distribution of Autoconf's typical output under terms of the recipient's choice (including proprietary).\" The output is material the licence conditions no longer reach, which is the permission dalicc:exceptedCombination.","action":"applied","change":"odrl:permission [ a odrl:Permission ;\n        odrl:action dalicc:exceptedCombination ] ;\n"},{"rubric":3,"severity":"info","field":"odrl:permission","description":"Every permission of GPL-3.0-or-later is kept, in the same place and with the same duties. An exception adds an additional permission to a licence; it never takes a granted right away.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":4,"severity":"info","field":"odrl:prohibition","description":"The exception lets the combined result travel under other terms, and the vocabulary cannot say that of a part of a work. The purpose clause says: \"The purpose of this Exception is to allow distribution of Autoconf's typical output under terms of the recipient's choice (including proprietary).\" A dalicc:ChangeLicense permission would say the licence of the covered work itself may be replaced, which is false and would contradict the whole-work share-alike duty. The record therefore keeps the prohibition, states the narrowed reach in dalicc:reciprocityScope and quotes the clause. Proposed term: dalicc:combinedWorkRelicensing, a permission for putting a larger work that contains the covered material under other terms.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":5,"severity":"info","field":"odrl:duty","description":"The licence-wide cc:ShareAlike duty stays on the odrl:Set, and section 2 of the exception says why: \"The availability of this Exception does not imply any general presumption that third-party software is unaffected by the copyleft requirements of the license of Autoconf.\"","action":"applied"},{"rubric":6,"severity":"info","field":"dalicc:additionalClauses","description":"The exception text is quoted verbatim as one literal, taken from https://raw.githubusercontent.com/spdx/license-list-data/main/text/Autoconf-exception-3.0.txt. Line breaks and the indentation of the source file are collapsed to single spaces, which is how every clause literal in the library is written; the wording is untouched. The warranty disclaimer and the liability limitation are the ones the base record quotes from the base licence.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":7,"severity":"info","field":"cc:jurisdiction","description":"cc:jurisdiction stays dalicc:worldwide and dalicc:validityType stays dalicc:perpetual: the exception names no territory and no term. The termination clause of the base licence still applies, and the record says no more about it than the base record does.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":8,"severity":"gap","field":"dalicc:exceptedCombination","description":"The exception carves the combination out of the condition of the licence, not out of its grant. dalicc:exemptedMaterial says the opposite and is prohibited on OGL-UK-1.0, OGL-UK-2.0 and NLOD-2.0, where it means material the licence never granted. The vocabulary defines dalicc:exceptedCombination for this side of it since 2026-09-23, and the record carries it as a permission.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":8,"severity":"gap","field":"dalicc:additionalClauses","description":"The exception falls away when a modification changes what Autoconf copies into its output: \"However, if by modifying Autoconf you cause any Ineligible Code of the version you received to become Normally Copied Code of your modified version, then you void this Exception for the resulting covered work.\" No term can hold a condition that ends an additional permission. Proposed term: dalicc:exceptionVoidingCondition.","action":"none"},{"rubric":9,"severity":"info","field":"record","description":"app.services.composer.consistency_check with the default dependency graph reports 0 conflicts for this record. dalicc:exceptedCombination takes part in no dependency relation, so it neither creates nor hides one.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":10,"severity":"major","field":"dalicc:variantOf","description":"The base record of this variant is GPL-3.0-or-later, which this same addition creates. The model is copied from it statement for statement, so dalicc:orLaterVersionOption stays true for the clause GPL version 3 section 14 states: \"If the Program specifies a version number of this License which applies to it and \"any later version\", you have the option of following the terms and conditions either of that version or of any later version published by the Free Software Foundation.\" dalicc:variantOf points at GPL-3.0-or-later and not at GPL-3.0-only, although the two carry the same deontic model. Both records are new, so a second reader should read them together.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":10,"severity":"info","field":"record","description":"The nearest siblings are GPL-3.0-or-later, which this record copies, and GPL-2.0-or-later-with-Autoconf-exception-2.0, the older pair. Version 3.0 of the exception defines Covered Code, Normally Copied Code and Ineligible Code and hangs the permission on them, where version 2.0 simply names the configure scripts.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":4,"severity":"minor","field":"odrl:prohibition","description":"dalicc:promote was prohibited and no sentence of this text supports it. The statement was the library's reading of a legal default, that a copyright licence which says nothing about endorsement grants no right to it, and it sat in 519 of 581 records as a house convention. That reading is now an adopted dalicc:DefaultRule of the core dependency graph, which supplies it to every licence that is silent about the action, so a compatibility check reaches the same answer and the record states only what the text states. Removed on 2026-09-23; see section 13 of docs/LICENSE_REVIEW.md.","action":"applied","change":"# removed\nodrl:prohibition [ a odrl:Prohibition ;\n        odrl:action dalicc:promote ] ;\n"},{"rubric":6,"severity":"minor","field":"dalicc:WarrantyOrLiabilityAcceptance","description":"dalicc:WarrantyOrLiabilityAcceptance held the whole sentence of Section 4, \"You may charge any price or no price for each copy that you convey, and you may offer support or warranty protection for a fee.\" Its first half is the permission to charge for a copy, which the record states as dalicc:chargeDistributionFee, and not a warranty clause. The literal now quotes only the second half, \"you may offer support or warranty protection for a fee\".","action":"applied"}],"family":"GNU copyleft family (GPL, LGPL, AGPL, FDL)","port_of":null,"variant_kind":"exception","variant_of":"GPL-3.0-or-later","notes":"The exception text carries a copyright sign, \"Copyright (c) 2009 Free Software Foundation, Inc.\", written with the character the published text uses. It is kept verbatim in the quoted clause, which is how the one other record in the library that quotes such a line treats it."}