LINTIAN

# `copyright-refers-to-symlink-license`

The copyright file refers to the versionless symlink in `/usr/share/common-licenses` for the full text of the GPL, LGPL, or GFDL license. This symlink is updated to point to the latest version of the license when a new one is released. The package appears to allow relicensing under later versions of its license, so this is legally consistent, but it implies that Debian will relicense the package under later versions of those licenses as they're released. It is normally better to point to the version of the license the package references in its license statement.

For example, if the package says something like "you may redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option) any later version", the `debian/copyright` file should refer to `/usr/share/common-licenses/GPL-2`, not `/GPL`.

For packages released under the same terms as Perl, Perl references the GPL version 1, so point to `/usr/share/common-licenses/GPL-1`.

Severity: | `pedantic`
Experimental: | `false`

## See also

- list of all the affected packages
- the source of this tag