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DFSG, Licensing & New Packages Team

kate 4:26.08.2-2

Package Information

Descriptionpowerful text editor

Kate is a powerful text editor that can open multiple files simultaneously.

With a built-in terminal, syntax highlighting, and tabbed sidebar, it performs as a lightweight but capable development environment. Kate's many tools, plugins, and scripts make it highly customizable.

Kate's features include:

* Multiple saved sessions, each with numerous files * Scriptable syntax highlighting, indentation, and code-folding * Configurable templates and text snippets * Symbol viewers for C, C++, and Python * XML completion and validation

MaintainerDebian Qt/KDE Maintainers <debian-qt-kde@lists.debian.org>
Changed BySandro Knauß <hefee@debian.org>
Sponsorhefee@debian.org
Distributionunstable
Architectureany all
VCSgit: https://salsa.debian.org/qt-kde-team/kde/kate.git (browse)
Closes#1028381
Popcon Installs35215
Binary NEWYes (new binary packages of a source already in sid)
Trackerhttps://tracker.debian.org/pkg/kate
Uploaded2 hours ago

New Package Report

.changes◂
Sourcekate
Version4:26.08.2-2
Changed-BySandro Knauß <hefee@debian.org>
Architecturesource amd64 all
Distributionunstable
DateSun, 25 Oct 2026 15:13:59 +0100
Changelog◂
kate (4:26.08.2-2) unstable; urgency=medium
 .
   [ Sandro Knauß ]
   * Bump to Debhelper 14 (Remove not needed substvars).
   * Switch to use dh-sequence-qmldeps.
     - Ship kate-addons.qmlfiles to detect qml files.
   * split kate package to finally get kwrite to be installed without
     kate. (Closes: #1028381)
   * copyright:
     - Cleanup old files.
     - Refer to GNU website rather than FSF address.
   * Move lintian-overrides to kate-libs.
   * Bump watch files to v5.
   * Add Multi-Arch hint for kate-data.
.dsc◂
Priorityoptional
Componentmain
Package-Listkate deb editors optional arch=any
kate-addons deb kde optional arch=any
kate-data deb kde optional arch=all
kate-libs deb kde optional arch=any
kwrite deb editors optional arch=any
Sectioneditors
debian/copyright◂
Format: https://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/copyright-format/1.0/
Upstream-Name: kate
Source: https://invent.kde.org/utilities/kate
Comment:
 KDE software follows the KDE licensing policy that can be found:
 https://techbase.kde.org/Policies/Licensing_Policy
 Some files might refer to license names that are explained it these the
 mentioned policy.
 .
 Unless otherwise noted the default license used in this application is
 LGPL-2.1+ for the source code and GFDL-NIV-1.2+ for the documentation.
 Some of the optional plugins used at runtime are under a version of
 the GPL license.
 .
 In particular, this licensing allows this project to link against libgit2
 (which may, in turn, link against the openssl, which has incompatibilities
 with the GPL),  as the code that links against this is the kateprojectplugin,
 that is under a  version of the LGPL, so the incompatibilities don't apply.
 .
 On the other hand, in order to link against the ktexteditor framework
 (which may, in turn, link against libgit2), either the libgit2 needs to be
 linked against gnutls or ktexteditor needs to not be linked against libgit2.
Upstream-Contact: kde-devel@kde.org

Files: *
Copyright: 2009, Abhishek Patil <abhishekworld@gmail.com>
           2001-2003, Anders Lund <anders.lund@lund.tdcadsl.dk>
           2001-2007, Anders Lund <anders@alweb.dk>
           2007-2008, Andreas Pakulat <apaku@gmx.de>
           2001-2022, Christoph Cullmann <cullmann@kde.org>
           2005, Dominik Haumann (dhaumann@kde.org) (documentation)
           2013, Dominik Haumann <dhaumann.org>
           2014-2021, Dominik Haumann <dhaumann@kde.org>
           2017, Forrest Smith
           2017, Friedrich W. H. Kossebau <kossebau@kde.org>
           2014-2018, Gregor Mi <codestruct@posteo.org>
           2022, Harald Sitter <sitter@kde.org>
           2017, Héctor Mesa Jiménez <hector@lcc.uma.es>
           2021-2022, Héctor Mesa Jiménez <wmj.py@gmx.com>
           2021, Ilia Kats <ilia-kats@gmx.net>
           2020, Jan Paul Batrina <jpmbatrina01@gmail.com>
           2020, Jonathan Verner <jonathan.verner@matfyz.cz>
           2001-2014, Joseph Wenninger <jowenn@kde.org>
           2011-2022, Kåre Särs <kare.sars@iki.fi>
           2020, Mario Aichinger <aichingm@gmail.com>
           2021, Markus Ebner <info@ebner-markus.de>
           2014, Martin Sandsmark <martin.sandsmark@kde.org>
           2007, Matthew Woehlke <mw_triad@users.sourceforge.net>
           2021, Michal Humpula <kde@hudrydum.cz>
           2018, Michal Srb <michalsrb@gmail.com>
           2009-2015, Milian Wolff <mail@milianw.de>
           2007, Mirko Stocker <me@misto.ch>
           2021, Méven Car <meven.car@kdemail.net>
           2022, Pablo Rauzy <r .at. uzy .dot. me>
           2007, Robert Gruber <rgruber@users.sourceforge.net>
           2002, Simon Hausmann <hausmann@kde.org>
           2018, Sven Brauch <mail@svenbrauch.de>
           2014, Sven Brauch <svenbrauch@gmail.com>
           2010, Thomas Fjellstrom <thomas@fjellstrom.ca>
           2018, Tomaz Canabrava <tcanabrava@kde.org>
           2020, Waqar Ahmed
           2020-2022, Waqar Ahmed <waqar.17a@gmail.com>
License: LGPL-2.0-or-later

Files: apps/kate/data/org.kde.kate.appdata.xml
       apps/kwrite/data/org.kde.kwrite.appdata.xml
Copyright: 2014, Matthias Klumpp <matthias@tenstral.net>
License: CC0-1.0

Files: doc/*
Copyright: 2000-2001, Seth Rothberg
           2002-2005, Anders Lund
           2005-2009, Dominic Hauman
           2011-2014, T.C. Hollingsworth
           2000-2001, Thad McGinnis
           2005, Anne-Marie Mahfouf
           2000, Jochen Wilhelmy
           2000-2005, the kate developer team
           2001-2014, the kate team
License: GFDL-NIV-1.2+

Files: addons/katesql/katesqlview.h
Copyright: 2010, Marco Mentasti <marcomentasti@gmail.com>
License: GPL-2.0-only

Files: addons/kate-ctags/ctagskinds.cpp
       addons/kate-ctags/ctagskinds.h
       addons/kate-ctags/tags.cpp
       addons/kate-ctags/tags.h
       addons/katebuild-plugin/plugin_katebuild.cpp
       addons/katebuild-plugin/plugin_katebuild.h
       addons/openlink/*
       addons/rbql/*
       addons/symbolviewer/*
       addons/textfilter/*
       apps/lib/welcomeview/*
Copyright: 2013, Alexander Neundorf <neundorf@kde.org>
           2001-2002, Bernd Gehrmann <bernd@kdevelop.org>
           2022, Eugene Popov <popov895@ukr.net>
           2011, Ian Wakeling <ian.wakeling@ntlworld.com>
           2004, Jens Dagerbo <jens.dagerbo@swipnet.se>
           2022, Jiří Wolker <woljiri@gmail.com>
           2006-2018, Kåre Särs <kare.sars@iki.fi>
           2023-2024, Waqar Ahmed <waqar.17a@gmail.com>
License: GPL-2.0-or-later

Files: addons/kate-ctags/kate_ctags_plugin.cpp
       addons/kate-ctags/kate_ctags_plugin.h
       addons/kate-ctags/kate_ctags_view.cpp
       addons/kate-ctags/kate_ctags_view.h
Copyright: 2008-2011, Kare Sars <kare.sars@iki.fi>
License: GPL-2.1+3+KDEeV

Files: addons/close-except-like/*
Copyright: 2012, Alex Turbov <i.zaufi@gmail.com>
License: GPL-3.0-or-later

Files: addons/backtracebrowser/btdatabase.cpp
       addons/backtracebrowser/btdatabase.h
       addons/backtracebrowser/btfileindexer.cpp
       addons/backtracebrowser/btfileindexer.h
       addons/backtracebrowser/btparser.cpp
       addons/backtracebrowser/btparser.h
       addons/backtracebrowser/katebacktracebrowser.cpp
       addons/backtracebrowser/katebacktracebrowser.h
       addons/filebrowser/katebookmarkhandler.cpp
       addons/filebrowser/katebookmarkhandler.h
       addons/filebrowser/katefilebrowserconfig.cpp
       addons/filebrowser/katefilebrowserconfig.h
       addons/filebrowser/katefilebrowser.cpp
       addons/filebrowser/katefilebrowser.h
       addons/filebrowser/katefilebrowserplugin.cpp
       addons/filebrowser/katefilebrowserplugin.h
       addons/gdbplugin/configview.cpp
       addons/gdbplugin/configview.h
       addons/gdbplugin/ioview.cpp
       addons/gdbplugin/ioview.h
       addons/gdbplugin/localsview.cpp
       addons/gdbplugin/localsview.h
       addons/gdbplugin/plugin_kategdb.cpp
       addons/gdbplugin/plugin_kategdb.h
       addons/katebuild-plugin/AppOutput.cpp
       addons/katebuild-plugin/AppOutput.h
       addons/katebuild-plugin/targets.cpp
       addons/katebuild-plugin/targets.h
       addons/katesql/connection.h
       addons/katesql/connectionmodel.cpp
       addons/katesql/connectionmodel.h
       addons/katesql/connectionwizard.cpp
       addons/katesql/connectionwizard.h
       addons/katesql/dataoutputview.cpp
       addons/katesql/dataoutputview.h
       addons/katesql/dataoutputwidget.cpp
       addons/katesql/dataoutputwidget.h
       addons/katesql/exportwizard.cpp
       addons/katesql/exportwizard.h
       addons/katesql/katesqlconfigpage.cpp
       addons/katesql/katesqlconfigpage.h
       addons/katesql/katesqlplugin.cpp
       addons/katesql/katesqlplugin.h
       addons/katesql/katesqlview.cpp
       addons/katesql/outputstyle.h
       addons/katesql/outputstylewidget.cpp
       addons/katesql/outputstylewidget.h
       addons/katesql/schemabrowserwidget.cpp
       addons/katesql/schemabrowserwidget.h
       addons/katesql/schemawidget.cpp
       addons/katesql/schemawidget.h
       addons/katesql/sqlmanager.cpp
       addons/katesql/sqlmanager.h
       addons/katesql/textoutputwidget.cpp
       addons/katesql/textoutputwidget.h
       addons/konsole/kateconsole.cpp
       addons/konsole/kateconsole.h
       apps/lib/kateappadaptor.cpp
       apps/lib/kateapp.cpp
       apps/lib/kateconfigdialog.cpp
       apps/lib/kateconfigplugindialogpage.cpp
       apps/lib/katedocmanager.cpp
       apps/lib/katedocmanager.h
       apps/lib/katemainwindow.cpp
       apps/lib/katemainwindow.h
       apps/lib/katemwmodonhddialog.cpp
       apps/lib/katepluginmanager.cpp
       apps/lib/katesavemodifieddialog.cpp
       apps/lib/kateviewmanager.cpp
       apps/lib/kateviewmanager.h
       apps/lib/kateviewspace.cpp
       apps/lib/kateviewspace.h
Copyright: 2021, Ahmad Samir <a.samirh78@gmail.com>
           2001-2005, Anders Lund <anders.lund@lund.tdcadsl.dk>
           2004-2007, Anders Lund <anders@alweb.dk>
           2003, Benjamin C Meyer <ben+kdelibs@meyerhome dot net>
           2001, Christoph Cullmann <cullmann@kde.org>
           2008-2014, Dominik Haumann <dhaumann kde org>
           2017, Ederag <edera@gmx.fr>
           2007, Flavio Castelli <flavio.castelli@gmail.com>
           2008-2010, Ian Wakeling <ian.wakeling@ntlworld.com>
           2001-2004, Joseph Wenninger <jowenn@kde.org>
           2010-2022, Kåre Särs <kare.sars@iki.fi>
           2010, Marco Mentasti <marcomentasti@gmail.com>
           2004, Michael Brade <brade@kde.org>
           2007, Mirko Stocker <me@misto.ch>
           2003, Waldo Bastian <bastian@kde.org>
License: LGPL-2.0-only

Files: addons/gdbplugin/debugconfigpage.cpp
       addons/gdbplugin/debugconfigpage.h
       addons/git-blame/gitblametooltip.cpp
       addons/git-blame/gitblametooltip.h
       addons/lspclient/lspclientcompletion.cpp
       addons/lspclient/lspclientcompletion.h
       addons/lspclient/lspclientconfigpage.cpp
       addons/lspclient/lspclientconfigpage.h
       addons/lspclient/lspclienthover.cpp
       addons/lspclient/lspclienthover.h
       addons/lspclient/lspclientplugin.cpp
       addons/lspclient/lspclientplugin.h
       addons/lspclient/lspclientpluginview.cpp
       addons/lspclient/lspclientpluginview.h
       addons/lspclient/lspclientprotocol.h
       addons/lspclient/lspclientserver.cpp
       addons/lspclient/lspclientserver.h
       addons/lspclient/lspclientservermanager.cpp
       addons/lspclient/lspclientservermanager.h
       addons/lspclient/lspclientsymbolview.cpp
       addons/lspclient/lspclientsymbolview.h
       addons/lspclient/lspclientutils.cpp
       addons/lspclient/lspclientutils.h
       addons/lspclient/semantic_tokens_legend.cpp
       addons/lspclient/semantic_tokens_legend.h
       addons/lspclient/tests/lsptestapp.cpp
       apps/lib/autotests/urlinfo_test.cpp
       apps/lib/autotests/urlinfo_test.h
       apps/lib/diagnostics/diagnosticitem.h
       apps/lib/diagnostics/diagnostic_suppression.h
       apps/lib/diagnostics/diagnostic_types.h
       apps/lib/diagnostics/diagnosticview.cpp
       apps/lib/diagnostics/diagnosticview.h
       apps/lib/diagnostics/session_diagnostic_suppression.h
       apps/lib/drawing_utils.h
       apps/lib/gitprocess.cpp
       apps/lib/gitprocess.h
       apps/lib/json_utils.h
       apps/lib/ktexteditor_utils.cpp
       apps/lib/ktexteditor_utils.h
       README.md
Copyright: 2023, Akseli Lahtinen <akselmo@akselmo.dev>
           2010-2022, Christoph Cullmann <cullmann@kde.org>
           2016, Dominik Haumann <dhaumann@kde.org>
           2021, Kåre Särs <kare.sars@iki.fi>
           2019-2022, Mark Nauwelaerts <mark.nauwelaerts@gmail.com>
           2016, Volker Krause <vkrause@kde.org>
           2021-2022, Waqar Ahmed <waqar.17a@gmail.com>
License: MIT
Comment: Automatically extracted

Files: 3rdparty/rapidjson/*
Copyright: 2021, IBM Corporation
           2015, THL A29 Limited, a Tencent company, and Milo Yip
License: MIT
Comment: Manually collected

Files: 3rdparty/rapidjson/msinttypes/*
Copyright: 2006-2013, Alexander Chemeris
           2015, THL A29 Limited, a Tencent company, and Milo Yip
License: BSD-3-Clause
Comment: Manually collected

Files: 3rdparty/rbql/*
Copyright: 2017, Dmitry Ignatovich
License: MIT
Comment: Manually collected

Files: 3rdparty/SingleApplication/*
Copyright: 2015-2020, Itay Grudev
License: MIT
Comment: Manually collected

Files: addons/kate-ctags/readtags.c
       addons/kate-ctags/readtags.h
       addons/project/ctags/readtags.c
       addons/project/ctags/readtags.h
Copyright: 1996-2003, Darren Hiebert <dhiebert@users.sourceforge.net>
License: public-domain
 This source code is released into the public domain.

Files: debian/*
Copyright: 2015-2024, Debian Qt/KDE Maintainers <debian-qt-kde@lists.debian.org>
License: Permissive
 The packaging efforts in this debian package are free software; the
 copyright holder(s) give unlimited permission to copy, distribute
 and modify it.

License: BSD-3-Clause
 Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
 modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
 are met:
 .
 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
 .
 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in
    the documentation and/or other materials provided with the
    distribution.
 .
 3. Neither the name of the copyright holder nor the names of its
    contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived
    from this software without specific prior written permission.
 .
 THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS
 "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT
 LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS
 FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
 COPYRIGHT HOLDER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT,
 INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING,
 BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES;
 LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER
 CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
 LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN
 ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE
 POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

License: CC0-1.0
 To the extent possible under law, the author(s) have dedicated all
 copyright and related and neighboring rights to this software to the
 public domain worldwide. This software is distributed without any
 warranty.
 .
 You should have received a copy of the CC0 Public Domain Dedication
 along with this software. If not, see
 <https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/>.
 .
 On Debian systems, the complete text of the CC0 Public Domain
 Dedication can be found in `/usr/share/common-licenses/CC0-1.0’.

License: GFDL-NIV-1.2+
 Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
 under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2
 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation;
 with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.
 A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU
 Free Documentation License".
 --
 On Debian systems, the complete text of the GNU Free Documentation License
 version 1.2 can be found in `/usr/share/common-licenses/GFDL-1.2'.

License: GPL-2.0-only
 This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
 the Free Software Foundation; version 2.
 .
 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
 WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
 General Public License for more details.
 .
 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
 along with this program; if not,
 see <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
 .
 On Debian systems, the complete text of the GNU General Public
 License version 2 can be found in
 `/usr/share/common-licenses/GPL-2’.

License: GPL-2.0-or-later
 This program is free software; you can 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 of the License, or
 (at your option) any later version.
 .
 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
 WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
 General Public License for more details.
 .
 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
 along with this program; if not,
 see <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
 .
 On Debian systems, the complete text of the GNU General Public
 License version 2 can be found in
 `/usr/share/common-licenses/GPL-2’.

License: GPL-2.1+3+KDEeV
 This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
 modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public
 License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either
 version 2.1 of the License, or (at your option) version 3, or any
 later version accepted by the membership of KDE e.V. (or its
 successor approved by the membership of KDE e.V.), which shall
 act as a proxy defined in Section 6 of version 3 of the license.
 .
 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
 General Public License for more details.
 .
 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public
 License along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
 --
 On Debian systems, the complete text of the GNU General Public License
 version 2 can be found in `/usr/share/common-licenses/GPL-2', likewise, the
 complete text of the GNU General Public License version 3 can be found in
 `/usr/share/common-licenses/GPL-3'.
Comment: There is no GPL-2.1. This is most likely a typo either for GPL-2 or
 LGPL-2.1. As stated it would be under the GPL-3.
 ... Copy and paste error in the license of a text editor.

License: GPL-3.0-or-later
 This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
 (at your option) any later version.
 .
 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
 WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
 General Public License for more details.
 .
 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
 along with this program.  If not, see
 <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
 .
 On Debian systems, the complete text of the GNU General Public
 License version 3 can be found in
 `/usr/share/common-licenses/GPL-3’.

License: LGPL-2.0-only
 This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
 it under the terms of the GNU Library General Public License version
 2 as published by the Free Software Foundation.
 .
 This library is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
 WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
 Library General Public License for more details.
 .
 You should have received a copy of the GNU Library General Public
 License along with this library; if not,
 see <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
 .
 On Debian systems, the complete text of the GNU Library General
 Public License version 2 can be found in
 `/usr/share/common-licenses/LGPL-2’.

License: LGPL-2.0-or-later
 This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
 it under the terms of the GNU Library General Public License as
 published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the
 License, or (at your option)  any later version.
 .
 This library is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
 WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
 Library General Public License for more details.
 .
 You should have received a copy of the GNU Library General Public
 License along with this library; if not,
 see <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
 .
 On Debian systems, the complete text of the GNU Library General
 Public License version 2 can be found in
 `/usr/share/common-licenses/LGPL-2’.

License: MIT
 Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person
 obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files
 (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction,
 including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge,
 publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software,
 and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so,
 subject to the following conditions:
 .
 The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be
 included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
 .
 THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,
 EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF
 MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND
 NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS
 BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN
 ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN
 CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
 SOFTWARE.

DFSG Assistant LLM REVIEW 1 blocker, 5 important, 0 minor

This is an LLM based review using a Debian Inference based workflow. It was not written by a member of the DFSG team and has not been checked by one. It is not a decision on the package: it may be wrong, and it may have missed things.

Reviewed 1 hour ago.

Report◂

DFSG NEW review for kate version 4:26.08.2-2

Summary

  • Licensing is DFSG-compliant and debian/copyright is accurate: No
  • Packaging is of good quality: Yes
  • Issues: 1 blocker, 5 important, 0 minor
  • debian/watch: version 5
  • debian/copyright: machine-readable
  • Scan before the review: 5 found

Licensing

The vendored 3rdparty/SingleApplication code carries a modified MIT licence that adds a field-of-use restriction ("Permission is not granted to use this software or any of the associated files as sample data for the purposes of building machine learning models"), which violates DFSG §6, and debian/copyright describes it as plain MIT. Additionally, debian/copyright has not been updated for the 2024-2026 contributors: several MIT and GPL files are caught by the LGPL Files: * stanza instead of a matching stanza, and a number of new authors (Cezar M. Tigaret, Daniel Naber, Tomas Trnka, Alexander Dymo, Anne-Marie Mahfouf, Artyom Kirnev, Dennis Lübke, Leo Ruggeri, Leia, Karthik Nishanth, Mark Nauwelaerts) are not named.

Packaging

The packaging is of good quality: correct debhelper compat 14 usage, dh-sequence-kf6/dh-sequence-qmldeps, hardening=+all, a clean binary split (kate/kwrite/kate-data/kate-addons/kate-libs) with correct epoch handling, Standards-Version 4.7.4, sensible Breaks/Replaces and a working override_dh_auto_test with arch allowlist. No policy violations or packaging defects found.

Issues

1. [blocker] [licensing] 3rdparty/SingleApplication/* adds a field-of-use restriction (no use as ML training data) and is mis-described as MIT

  • Files: 3rdparty/SingleApplication/FreeStandingSingleApplication:10, 3rdparty/SingleApplication/singleapplication.cpp:10, 3rdparty/SingleApplication/singleapplication.h:10, 3rdparty/SingleApplication/singleapplication_p.cpp:10, 3rdparty/SingleApplication/singleapplication_p.h:10
  • Basis: checked, in the package or with a reference tool
  • Evidence: Header reads: ... subject to the following conditions: Permission is not granted to use this software or any of the associated files as sample data for the purposes of building machine learning models. The copyright stanza Files: 3rdparty/SingleApplication/* says License: MIT.
  • Problem: The extra sentence is a restriction on a specific field of endeavor (training machine-learning models), violating DFSG §6 (Debian Policy 2.1), so the code is not free software. debian/copyright additionally mislabels it as the plain MIT licence. The code is actually compiled into the kate binary (apps/kate/CMakeLists.txt adds singleapplication.cpp and singleapplication_p.cpp to the kate-bin target), so the non-free terms ship in the binary.
  • Fix: Repack the source to drop 3rdparty/SingleApplication (and build against the system copy or the FreeStandingSingleApplication stub, or replace the mechanism), or obtain a version without the restriction. If it stays, debian/copyright must record the actual terms, not MIT.

2. [important] [licensing] MIT files under apps/lib/ are caught by the LGPL Files: * stanza instead of the MIT stanza

  • Files: apps/lib/exec_io_utils.cpp:4, apps/lib/exec_io_utils.h:4, apps/lib/exec_utils.cpp:4, apps/lib/exec_utils.h:4, apps/lib/jsonsettings.cpp:5, apps/lib/jsonsettings.h:4, apps/lib/io/exec.cpp:4, apps/lib/autotests/exec_tests.cpp:6, apps/lib/autotests/io_tests.cpp:6
  • Basis: checked, in the package or with a reference tool
  • Evidence: These files carry SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT but are not listed in the MIT stanza (which names only drawing_utils.h, gitprocess., json_utils.h, diagnostics/, urlinfo_test., ktexteditor_utils., plus the lspclient files), so they match Files: * with License: LGPL-2.0-or-later.
  • Problem: The copyright file assigns the wrong licence to these files (LGPL-2.0-or-later instead of MIT), which is an inaccurate debian/copyright. The holders of several of them (Mark Nauwelaerts for exec_io_utils/exec_utils/io/exec and the two tests, 'Leia' for jsonsettings) are also not named anywhere.
  • Fix: Add these files to the MIT stanza (or a new MIT stanza) and add the holders Mark Nauwelaerts mark.nauwelaerts@gmail.com and Leia leia@tutamail.com.

3. [important] [licensing] GPL-2.0-or-later plugin files fall under Files: * (LGPL-2.0-or-later) and their authors are not named

  • Files: addons/xmlcheck/plugin_katexmlcheck.cpp:12, addons/xmlcheck/plugin_katexmlcheck.h:12, addons/xmltools/plugin_katexmltools.cpp:14, addons/xmltools/plugin_katexmltools.h:8, addons/xmltools/pseudo_dtd.cpp:8, addons/xmltools/pseudo_dtd.h:8, addons/template/AppWizardReader.cpp:6
  • Basis: checked, in the package or with a reference tool
  • Evidence: These files state either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version (or SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0-or-later for AppWizardReader.cpp). None of addons/xmlcheck, addons/xmltools or addons/template is named in any stanza, so they match Files: * with License: LGPL-2.0-or-later.
  • Problem: GPL-2.0-or-later files are mis-described as LGPL-2.0-or-later, which is legally misleading (LGPL permits linking that GPL does not). Their authors — Daniel Naber (xmlcheck, xmltools), Tomas Trnka (xmltools), and Alexander Dymo and Anne-Marie Mahfouf (AppWizardReader.cpp) — are not named in any Copyright field.
  • Fix: Add a GPL-2.0-or-later stanza covering addons/xmlcheck/, addons/xmltools/plugin_katexmltools., addons/xmltools/pseudo_dtd.* and addons/template/AppWizardReader.cpp, naming those holders.

4. [important] [licensing] addons/symbolviewer/julia_parser.cpp is LGPL-2.0-or-later but grouped under the GPL-2.0-or-later symbolviewer stanza, and its author is not named

  • Files: addons/symbolviewer/julia_parser.cpp:12
  • Basis: checked, in the package or with a reference tool
  • Evidence: julia_parser.cpp carries SPDX-License-Identifier: LGPL-2.0-or-later and SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2023 Cezar M. Tigaret <cezar.tigaret@gmail.com>, but the stanza Files: addons/symbolviewer/* declares License: GPL-2.0-or-later and does not name Cezar M. Tigaret.
  • Problem: The file is LGPL, not GPL, so the stanza assigns the wrong licence, and the holder is missing.
  • Fix: Give julia_parser.cpp its own stanza (LGPL-2.0-or-later, Copyright: Cezar M. Tigaret) or otherwise correct the grouping.

5. [important] [licensing] addons/katesql LGPL-2.0-only files (autotests/, dataoutput/, helpers/) fall under Files: * (LGPL-2.0-or-later) and Artyom Kirnev is not named

  • Files: addons/katesql/autotests/test_exportdata.cpp:3, addons/katesql/autotests/test_importdata.cpp:3, addons/katesql/autotests/testhelpers.h:3, addons/katesql/dataoutput/dataoutputmodelbase.h:4, addons/katesql/dataoutput/dataoutputmodelinterface.h:4, addons/katesql/helpers/dataoutputimportexporthelpers.cpp:2
  • Basis: checked, in the package or with a reference tool
  • Evidence: These files carry SPDX-License-Identifier: LGPL-2.0-only and SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2026 Artyom Kirnev <kirnevartem30@gmail.com>. The LGPL-2.0-only stanza enumerates katesql files one by one but omits autotests/, dataoutput/ (including columndelegates/ and models/) and helpers/, so these match Files: * (License: LGPL-2.0-or-later).
  • Problem: The new katesql code (dozens of files reworked in 2026) is assigned LGPL-2.0-or-later when it is LGPL-2.0-only, and the holder Artyom Kirnev is not named.
  • Fix: Extend the LGPL-2.0-only stanza to cover the katesql subdirectories (or list them), and add Artyom Kirnev to its Copyright field.

6. [important] [licensing] Files: * does not name the authors Dennis Lübke, Leo Ruggeri and Karthik Nishanth

  • Files: addons/kategpgplugin/gpgkeydetails.cpp:2, addons/kategpgplugin/gpgmeppwrapper.cpp:2, addons/bookmarks/bookmarksmodel.cpp:2, addons/bookmarks/bookmarksplugin.cpp:2, apps/lib/texthint/hintstate.cpp:2, apps/lib/texthint/hintview.cpp:2
  • Basis: checked, in the package or with a reference tool
  • Evidence: These LGPL-2.0-or-later files (matching the Files: * default) carry SPDX-FileCopyrightText for 2025 Dennis Lübke <kde@dennis2society.de> (kategpgplugin), 2025 Leo Ruggeri <leo5t@yahoo.it> (bookmarks) and 2024 Karthik Nishanth <kndevl@outlook.com> (apps/lib/texthint), none of whom appears in the Files: * Copyright list.
  • Problem: Copyright holders named in the files are not represented in debian/copyright, making it incomplete.
  • Fix: Add Dennis Lübke, Leo Ruggeri and Karthik Nishanth (with their email addresses and years) to the Files: * Copyright field, or add per-directory stanzas.

Verified

  • The five prescan 'proprietary wording' files are the only ones: all are in 3rdparty/SingleApplication/ and share the same modified-MIT header; I read each header and they are compiled into kate-bin via apps/kate/CMakeLists.txt (lines 3-4).
  • The remaining GPL-2.0-or-later files in addons (kate-ctags/ctagskinds.* and tags., katebuild-plugin/plugin_katebuild., openlink/, rbql/, textfilter/) and apps/lib/welcomeview/ are correctly covered by the GPL-2.0-or-later stanza.
  • 3rdparty/rapidjson (MIT), 3rdparty/rapidjson/msinttypes (BSD-3-Clause) and 3rdparty/rbql (MIT) stanzas match their files; doc/* is GFDL-NIV-1.2+ as documented.
  • I enumerated source-code copyright holders by grepping SPDX-FileCopyrightText/SPDX-License-Identifier across addons/ and apps/; the GPL/MIT/LGPL-2.0-only mismatches and the missing holders reported above were found this way.
  • The bulk of the 196 names in the dfsg-author-check output are translation authors (po/.po and po//docs/*.docbook); translations are conventionally covered by the Files: * catch-all rather than enumerated individually.
  • uscan found the packaged version as the newest upstream release (upstream 26.08.2, packaged 26.08.2).
  • Every pointer of debian/copyright to /usr/share/common-licenses names a file that is there (CC0-1.0, GFDL-1.2, GPL-2, GPL-3, LGPL-2).

Not confirmed

  • The dfsg-author-check listing in /review-input/prescan.md is itself truncated (it ends mid-entry at 'Eloy Cuadra'), so I could not read all ~196 names; I instead relied on my own SPDX-FileCopyrightText grep across addons/ and apps/, which is the source for the holder issues above.
  • I sampled licences by directory (addons/, apps/, 3rdparty/, doc/) rather than reading every one of the ~3070 files individually.

Proposed changes

None.

Uploader's response to the LLM review

Waiting for the uploader's response until , because the review found serious issues.

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