linuxexpert-practice-labs/labs/ubuntu-desktop/2-3-open-source-licenses

Ubuntu Desktop 2.3: Open source licenses

Reading the licenses of installed packages, telling copyleft from permissive, and finding which archive component a package comes from.

Before you start

The lab changes nothing. Write your answers to the files in /root/lab-answers/, one item per line.

Tasks

1. Find the license of the bash package and of the openssl package, and say which of them could be built into a closed-source product. Write bash's main license on line 1 of /root/lab-answers/1, openssl's on line 2, and the package that could be built in on line 3.
2. Find which component ubuntu-drivers-common comes from, and which component NVIDIA's driver nvidia-driver-535 is in. Write them on lines 1 and 2 of /root/lab-answers/2.
3. Count how many installed packages carry a GPL license of any version, and write the number to /root/lab-answers/3.

Hints

• grep '^License:' /usr/share/doc/PACKAGE/copyright; a few files in a package can have other licenses than the main one.
• apt-cache show PACKAGE | grep -m1 Section: a section with no prefix is in main, otherwise the prefix is the component.
• grep -l over /usr/share/doc/*/copyright, then wc -l. Rough counts are fine.