{
    "mode": "man",
    "parameter": "GPL",
    "section": "7",
    "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/GPL/7/json",
    "generated": "2026-06-03T05:23:54Z",
    "sections": {
        "NAME": {
            "content": "gpl - GNU General Public License\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "DESCRIPTION": {
            "content": "GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE\n",
            "subsections": [
                {
                    "name": "Version 2, June 1991",
                    "content": "Copyright (c) 1989, 1991 Free Software Foundation, Inc.\n59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA\n\nEveryone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies\nof this license document, but changing it is not allowed.\n"
                },
                {
                    "name": "Preamble",
                    "content": "The licenses for most software are designed to take away your\nfreedom to share and change it.  By contrast, the GNU General Public\nLicense is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change free\nsoftware---to make sure the software is free for all its users.  This\nGeneral Public License applies to most of the Free Software\nFoundation's software and to any other program whose authors commit to\nusing it.  (Some other Free Software Foundation software is covered by\nthe GNU Library General Public License instead.)  You can apply it to\nyour programs, too.\n\nWhen we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not\nprice.  Our General Public Licenses are designed to make sure that you\nhave the freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge for\nthis service if you wish), that you receive source code or can get it\nif you want it, that you can change the software or use pieces of it\nin new free programs; and that you know you can do these things.\n\nTo protect your rights, we need to make restrictions that forbid\nanyone to deny you these rights or to ask you to surrender the rights.\nThese restrictions translate to certain responsibilities for you if you\ndistribute copies of the software, or if you modify it.\n\nFor example, if you distribute copies of such a program, whether\ngratis or for a fee, you must give the recipients all the rights that\nyou have.  You must make sure that they, too, receive or can get the\nsource code.  And you must show them these terms so they know their\nrights.\n\nWe protect your rights with two steps: (1) copyright the software, and\n(2) offer you this license which gives you legal permission to copy,\ndistribute and/or modify the software.\n\nAlso, for each author's protection and ours, we want to make certain\nthat everyone understands that there is no warranty for this free\nsoftware.  If the software is modified by someone else and passed on, we\nwant its recipients to know that what they have is not the original, so\nthat any problems introduced by others will not reflect on the original\nauthors' reputations.\n\nFinally, any free program is threatened constantly by software\npatents.  We wish to avoid the danger that redistributors of a free\nprogram will individually obtain patent licenses, in effect making the\nprogram proprietary.  To prevent this, we have made it clear that any\npatent must be licensed for everyone's free use or not licensed at all.\n\nThe precise terms and conditions for copying, distribution and\nmodification follow.\n"
                },
                {
                    "name": "TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR COPYING, DISTRIBUTION AND MODIFICATION",
                    "content": "0.  This License applies to any program or other work which contains a notice placed by the\ncopyright holder saying it may be distributed under the terms of this General Public Li‐\ncense.  The ``Program'', below, refers to any such program or work, and a ``work based on\nthe Program'' means either the Program or any derivative work under copyright law: that\nis to say, a work containing the Program or a portion of it, either verbatim or with mod‐\nifications and/or translated into another language.  (Hereinafter, translation is in‐\ncluded without limitation in the term ``modification''.)  Each licensee is addressed as\n``you''.\n\nActivities other than copying, distribution and modification are not covered by this Li‐\ncense; they are outside its scope.  The act of running the Program is not restricted, and\nthe output from the Program is covered only if its contents constitute a work based on\nthe Program (independent of having been made by running the Program).  Whether that is\ntrue depends on what the Program does.\n\n1.  You may copy and distribute verbatim copies of the Program's source code as you receive\nit, in any medium, provided that you conspicuously and appropriately publish on each copy\nan appropriate copyright notice and disclaimer of warranty; keep intact all the notices\nthat refer to this License and to the absence of any warranty; and give any other recipi‐\nents of the Program a copy of this License along with the Program.\n\nYou may charge a fee for the physical act of transferring a copy, and you may at your op‐\ntion offer warranty protection in exchange for a fee.\n\n2.  You may modify your copy or copies of the Program or any portion of it, thus forming a\nwork based on the Program, and copy and distribute such modifications or work under the\nterms of Section 1 above, provided that you also meet all of these conditions:\n\na.  You must cause the modified files to carry prominent notices stating that you changed\nthe files and the date of any change.\n\nb.  You must cause any work that you distribute or publish, that in whole or in part con‐\ntains or is derived from the Program or any part thereof, to be licensed as a whole\nat no charge to all third parties under the terms of this License.\n\nc.  If the modified program normally reads commands interactively when run, you must\ncause it, when started running for such interactive use in the most ordinary way, to\nprint or display an announcement including an appropriate copyright notice and a no‐\ntice that there is no warranty (or else, saying that you provide a warranty) and that\nusers may redistribute the program under these conditions, and telling the user how\nto view a copy of this License.  (Exception: if the Program itself is interactive but\ndoes not normally print such an announcement, your work based on the Program is not\nrequired to print an announcement.)\n\nThese requirements apply to the modified work as a whole.  If identifiable sections of\nthat work are not derived from the Program, and can be reasonably considered independent\nand separate works in themselves, then this License, and its terms, do not apply to those\nsections when you distribute them as separate works.  But when you distribute the same\nsections as part of a whole which is a work based on the Program, the distribution of the\nwhole must be on the terms of this License, whose permissions for other licensees extend\nto the entire whole, and thus to each and every part regardless of who wrote it.\n\nThus, it is not the intent of this section to claim rights or contest your rights to work\nwritten entirely by you; rather, the intent is to exercise the right to control the dis‐\ntribution of derivative or collective works based on the Program.\n\nIn addition, mere aggregation of another work not based on the Program with the Program\n(or with a work based on the Program) on a volume of a storage or distribution medium\ndoes not bring the other work under the scope of this License.\n\n3.  You may copy and distribute the Program (or a work based on it, under Section 2) in ob‐\nject code or executable form under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above provided that you\nalso do one of the following:\n\na.  Accompany it with the complete corresponding machine-readable source code, which must\nbe distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium customarily used\nfor software interchange; or,\n\nb.  Accompany it with a written offer, valid for at least three years, to give any third\nparty, for a charge no more than your cost of physically performing source distribu‐\ntion, a complete machine-readable copy of the corresponding source code, to be dis‐\ntributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium customarily used for\nsoftware interchange; or,\n\nc.  Accompany it with the information you received as to the offer to distribute corre‐\nsponding source code.  (This alternative is allowed only for noncommercial distribu‐\ntion and only if you received the program in object code or executable form with such\nan offer, in accord with Subsection b above.)\n\nThe source code for a work means the preferred form of the work for making modifications\nto it.  For an executable work, complete source code means all the source code for all\nmodules it contains, plus any associated interface definition files, plus the scripts\nused to control compilation and installation of the executable.  However, as a special\nexception, the source code distributed need not include anything that is normally dis‐\ntributed (in either source or binary form) with the major components (compiler, kernel,\nand so on) of the operating system on which the executable runs, unless that component\nitself accompanies the executable.\n\nIf distribution of executable or object code is made by offering access to copy from a\ndesignated place, then offering equivalent access to copy the source code from the same\nplace counts as distribution of the source code, even though third parties are not com‐\npelled to copy the source along with the object code.\n\n4.  You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Program except as expressly pro‐\nvided under this License.  Any attempt otherwise to copy, modify, sublicense or distrib‐\nute the Program is void, and will automatically terminate your rights under this License.\nHowever, parties who have received copies, or rights, from you under this License will\nnot have their licenses terminated so long as such parties remain in full compliance.\n\n5.  You are not required to accept this License, since you have not signed it.  However,\nnothing else grants you permission to modify or distribute the Program or its derivative\nworks.  These actions are prohibited by law if you do not accept this License.  There‐\nfore, by modifying or distributing the Program (or any work based on the Program), you\nindicate your acceptance of this License to do so, and all its terms and conditions for\ncopying, distributing or modifying the Program or works based on it.\n\n6.  Each time you redistribute the Program (or any work based on the Program), the recipient\nautomatically receives a license from the original licensor to copy, distribute or modify\nthe Program subject to these terms and conditions.  You may not impose any further re‐\nstrictions on the recipients' exercise of the rights granted herein.  You are not respon‐\nsible for enforcing compliance by third parties to this License.\n\n7.  If, as a consequence of a court judgment or allegation of patent infringement or for any\nother reason (not limited to patent issues), conditions are imposed on you (whether by\ncourt order, agreement or otherwise) that contradict the conditions of this License, they\ndo not excuse you from the conditions of this License.  If you cannot distribute so as to\nsatisfy simultaneously your obligations under this License and any other pertinent obli‐\ngations, then as a consequence you may not distribute the Program at all.  For example,\nif a patent license would not permit royalty-free redistribution of the Program by all\nthose who receive copies directly or indirectly through you, then the only way you could\nsatisfy both it and this License would be to refrain entirely from distribution of the\nProgram.\n\nIf any portion of this section is held invalid or unenforceable under any particular cir‐\ncumstance, the balance of the section is intended to apply and the section as a whole is\nintended to apply in other circumstances.\n\nIt is not the purpose of this section to induce you to infringe any patents or other\nproperty right claims or to contest validity of any such claims; this section has the\nsole purpose of protecting the integrity of the free software distribution system, which\nis implemented by public license practices.  Many people have made generous contributions\nto the wide range of software distributed through that system in reliance on consistent\napplication of that system; it is up to the author/donor to decide if he or she is will‐\ning to distribute software through any other system and a licensee cannot impose that\nchoice.\n\nThis section is intended to make thoroughly clear what is believed to be a consequence of\nthe rest of this License.\n\n8.  If the distribution and/or use of the Program is restricted in certain countries either\nby patents or by copyrighted interfaces, the original copyright holder who places the\nProgram under this License may add an explicit geographical distribution limitation ex‐\ncluding those countries, so that distribution is permitted only in or among countries not\nthus excluded.  In such case, this License incorporates the limitation as if written in\nthe body of this License.\n\n9.  The Free Software Foundation may publish revised and/or new versions of the General Pub‐\nlic License from time to time.  Such new versions will be similar in spirit to the\npresent version, but may differ in detail to address new problems or concerns.\n\nEach version is given a distinguishing version number.  If the Program specifies a ver‐\nsion number of this License which applies to it and ``any later version'', you have the\noption of following the terms and conditions either of that version or of any later ver‐\nsion published by the Free Software Foundation.  If the Program does not specify a ver‐\nsion number of this License, you may choose any version ever published by the Free Soft‐\nware Foundation.\n\n10. If you wish to incorporate parts of the Program into other free programs whose distribu‐\ntion conditions are different, write to the author to ask for permission.  For software\nwhich is copyrighted by the Free Software Foundation, write to the Free Software Founda‐\ntion; we sometimes make exceptions for this.  Our decision will be guided by the two\ngoals of preserving the free status of all derivatives of our free software and of pro‐\nmoting the sharing and reuse of software generally.\n\nNO WARRANTY\n\n11. BECAUSE THE PROGRAM IS LICENSED FREE OF CHARGE, THERE IS NO WARRANTY FOR THE PROGRAM, TO\nTHE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW.  EXCEPT WHEN OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE\nCOPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES PROVIDE THE PROGRAM ``AS IS'' WITHOUT WARRANTY OF\nANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WAR‐\nRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO\nTHE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM IS WITH YOU.  SHOULD THE PROGRAM PROVE DEFEC‐\nTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR OR CORRECTION.\n\n12. IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN WRITING WILL ANY COPYRIGHT\nHOLDER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MAY MODIFY AND/OR REDISTRIBUTE THE PROGRAM AS PERMITTED\nABOVE, BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES, INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSE‐\nQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAM (INCLUDING BUT\nNOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY YOU\nOR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE PROGRAM TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER PROGRAMS), EVEN IF\nSUCH HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.\n\nEND OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS\n"
                },
                {
                    "name": "How to Apply These Terms to Your New Programs",
                    "content": "If you develop a new program, and you want it to be of the greatest\npossible use to the public, the best way to achieve this is to make it\nfree software which everyone can redistribute and change under these terms.\n\nTo do so, attach the following notices to the program.  It is safest\nto attach them to the start of each source file to most effectively\nconvey the exclusion of warranty; and each file should have at least\nthe ``copyright'' line and a pointer to where the full notice is found.\n\n<one line to give the program's name and a brief idea of what it does.>\nCopyright (C) <year>  <name of author>\n\nThis program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify\nit under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by\nthe Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or\n(at your option) any later version.\n\nThis program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,\nbut WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of\nMERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the\nGNU General Public License for more details.\n\nYou should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License\nalong with this program; if not, write to the Free Software\nFoundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330,\nBoston, MA 02111-1307, USA.\n\nAlso add information on how to contact you by electronic and paper mail.\n\nIf the program is interactive, make it output a short notice like this when it starts in an\ninteractive mode:\n\nGnomovision version 69, Copyright (C) <year> <name of author>\nGnomovision comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details\ntype `show w'.\nThis is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it\nunder certain conditions; type `show c' for details.\n\nThe hypothetical commands show w and show c should show the appropriate parts of the General\nPublic License.  Of course, the commands you use may be called something other than show w\nand show c; they could even be mouse-clicks or menu items---whatever suits your program.\n\nYou should also get your employer (if you work as a programmer) or your school, if any, to\nsign a ``copyright disclaimer'' for the program, if necessary.  Here is a sample; alter the\nnames:\n\nYoyodyne, Inc., hereby disclaims all copyright interest in the program\n`Gnomovision' (which makes passes at compilers) written by James Hacker.\n\n<signature of Ty Coon>, 1 April 1989\nTy Coon, President of Vice\n\nThis General Public License does not permit incorporating your program into proprietary pro‐\ngrams.  If your program is a subroutine library, you may consider it more useful to permit\nlinking proprietary applications with the library.  If this is what you want to do, use the\nGNU Library General Public License instead of this License.\n"
                }
            ]
        },
        "SEE ALSO": {
            "content": "gfdl(7), fsf-funding(7).\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "COPYRIGHT": {
            "content": "Copyright (c) 1989, 1991 Free Software Foundation, Inc.  59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston,\nMA 02111-1307, USA\n\nEveryone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this license document, but\nchanging it is not allowed.\n\n\n\ngcc-3.3                                      2003-03-01                                       GPL(7)",
            "subsections": []
        }
    },
    "summary": "gpl - GNU General Public License",
    "flags": [],
    "examples": [],
    "see_also": [
        {
            "name": "gfdl",
            "section": "7",
            "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/gfdl/7/json"
        },
        {
            "name": "fsf-funding",
            "section": "7",
            "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/fsf-funding/7/json"
        }
    ]
}