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Would it be against the GPL to publish a work (eg. a preamble) that has a dependency on both GPL and LPPL packages? The LPPL is not GPL compatible.

Could I argue that the LPPL package is a system library? CTAN actually does specify a list of packages that are required, meaning every latex distribution should have them, so that package writers can require them. At the same time, one problem cannot argue every package on CTAN is a system library.

However the case is much less clear for packages specific XeTeX and LuaTeX. It's unclear when a package is core enough to be a system library, like fontspec or unicode-math. Is there a standard in the community for this kind of thing?

As a followup question, wouldn't this issue result in GPL packages that cannot be modified and redistributed if they use a non-system-library LPPL package?

Please don't talk about the compiled output of the latex document.

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  • Related: tex.stackexchange.com/questions/133937/…
    – Bart van Ingen Schenau
    May 21, 2020 at 7:07
  • See also tex.stackexchange.com/q/69007/5763
    – Martin Schröder
    May 21, 2020 at 15:25
  • I would never release a package under GPL unless I have to. This is more about doing something like releasing a preamble on github that calls usepackage on a GPL package.
    – Max Xiong
    May 21, 2020 at 15:26
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    @ReinstateMonica-M.Schröder I actually saw that one already, but it does not answer my question. I agree that the code is probably under GPL, but I believe doing so would violate LPPL. (Incidentally I do not agree that the document has to be under GPL, on the grounds that copyrightable portions of code do not make into the PDF)
    – Max Xiong
    May 21, 2020 at 15:33

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