Bill Allombert on Wed, 19 Aug 2026 12:07:34 +0200


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Re: gmp-doc on Debian Linux 13.6


On Wed, Aug 19, 2026 at 09:40:10AM +0200, stes@telenet.be wrote:
> During installing of GNU GMP I observed something strange, namely that gmp-doc (the documentation for GNU GMP ?) could not be installed.
> 
> Is this a misunderstanding from my part, please, or do I see at :
> 
> https://packages.debian.org/search?keywords=gmp-doc
> 
> that gmp-doc is in a "non-free" source of Debian Linux.  Why would that be the case ?

For historical reason, the GNU GMP documentation is not released under the same license as 
GNU GMP but is instead licensed under the GFDL with invariants section which is non-free
for Debian purpose.

Wikimedia fixed this problem for Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Licensing_update
by using the GFDL 1.3 escape clause.
GMP could not do that.

But this has nothing to do with PARI/GP, which never used the GFDL.

Cheers,
Bill