{"id":"GPL-2.0-or-later-with-Bison-exception-2.2","title":"GNU General Public License v2.0 or later with Bison exception 2.2","reviewed_on":"2026-09-22","reviewer":"Giray Havur","text_source":"https://raw.githubusercontent.com/spdx/license-list-data/main/text/GPL-2.0-or-later.txt","text_retrieved":true,"verdict":"created","summary":"The record models GPL version 2 or later with the Bison exception 2.2, the combination the parser skeletons of GNU Bison carry. It keeps every statement of the GPL-2.0-or-later record and adds one permission for a larger work that contains the skeleton, which you may distribute under terms of your choice. The exception may be removed by whoever redistributes the skeleton, which the record quotes because no term holds it.","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-2.0-or-later WITH Bison-exception-2.2\": 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/old-licenses/gpl-2.0.html, because that is the licence the record models. dct:source points at the SPDX page of the exception, https://spdx.org/licenses/Bison-exception-2.2.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":"The exception reads: \"As a special exception, you may create a larger work that contains part or all of the Bison parser skeleton and distribute that work under terms of your choice, so long as that work isn't itself a parser generator using the skeleton or a modified version thereof as a parser skeleton.\" The larger work 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-2.0-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 exception says of the larger work: \"you may create a larger work that contains part or all of the Bison parser skeleton and distribute that work under terms of your choice\". 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. The exception narrows the work the duty reaches, not the duty itself, and dalicc:reciprocityScope records the narrowed reach.","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/Bison-exception-2.2.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 can be taken away again: \"Alternatively, if you modify or redistribute the parser skeleton itself, you may (at your option) remove this special exception, which will cause the skeleton and the resulting Bison output files to be licensed under the GNU General Public License without this special exception.\" A record states what a licence is, not that a downstream licensee may drop part of it. Proposed term: dalicc:exceptionRemovable, a boolean saying that the additional permission may be dropped on redistribution.","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-2.0-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 2 section 9 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-2.0-or-later and not at GPL-2.0-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-2.0-or-later, which this record copies, and GPL-3.0-or-later-with-Bison-exception-2.2, which carries the same exception text on GPL version 3. The two records differ only in the base licence, so their dalicc:reciprocityScope literals are identical on purpose.","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"}],"family":"GNU copyleft family (GPL, LGPL, AGPL, FDL)","port_of":null,"variant_kind":"exception","variant_of":"GPL-2.0-or-later","notes":"Bison has carried this exception since version 2.2 of the program, which the text itself states. The condition that the larger work must not be a parser generator is part of the quoted clause and of dalicc:reciprocityScope."}