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Is Common Development and Distribution License 1.0 compatible with GNU GPL v2.0 or later?

Yes

Most weak-copyleft licenses (including Common Development and Distribution License 1.0) are designed to combine with GPL-family ones. Verify the specific weak-copyleft license version against GNU GPL v2.0 or later's compatibility list (FSF maintains an authoritative one).

About these licenses

LicenseFamilyPatent grant
Common Development and Distribution License 1.0 (CDDL-1.0) weak-copyleft Yes
GNU GPL v2.0 or later (GPL-2.0-or-later) strong-copyleft No (implicit at most)

Common Development and Distribution License 1.0: File-level copyleft, similar in spirit to MPL.

GNU GPL v2.0 or later: GPL-2.0 with explicit upgrade path; users may pick GPL-2.0 or any later GPL.

What to do next

If you found this page because you're trying to figure out whether shipping a particular dependency is safe, the answer above is a starting point — not a substitute for reading the actual licenses or talking to a lawyer when stakes are high.

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