Hi Vlad and Adam, +1 in favour of removing any catagory X dependencies.
But what I see from PR removing them outright is not a good idea. What we can do that 1. Maria DB we can try upgrading version 3.x + (which are actually apache compliant) for that and then remove it entirely if we have enough use cases of proper postgre migration guides and scripts. 2. For MySql we can look for temporary alternative for sql connectors that are apache compliant. And another option we can keep things as it is. Regards, Aman On Fri, 29 May, 2026, 6:40 pm Ádám Sághy, <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi there, > > Since you haven’t shared much information about it, I’ll try to summarize > the changes: > > 1. You’re about to remove the following: > - *MariaDB Connector/J* (`org.mariadb.jdbc:mariadb-java-client`) — LGPL > - *MySQL Connector/J* (`com.mysql:mysql-connector-j`) — GPL with FOSS > exception > - *SpotBugs Annotations* (`com.github.spotbugs:spotbugs-annotations`) — > LGPL > > 2. Additionally, there are some changes in the application.properties and > tests to use PostgreSQL as the primary database. > > The updated documentation part: > > *Docker HUB section* > > *The official Fineract Docker image includes the PostgreSQL JDBC driver > only. MySQL and MariaDB JDBC drivers are* > ***not** included due to license incompatibility (see LICENSE section > below). To use Fineract with MySQL or MariaDB,* > *download the driver from the vendor and either build your own Docker > image on top of the official one, mount it* > *via a Docker volume, or install it from the OS package manager inside a > custom image.* > > *License section* > > *The following libraries are **not** included in Fineract binary > distribution artifacts (binary tarball, WAR, bootJar,* > *or Docker image) because their licenses are [Category > X](https://www.apache.org/legal/resolved.html#category-x > <https://www.apache.org/legal/resolved.html#category-x>)* > *under the Apache Software Foundation third-party license policy:* > > *- **MariaDB Connector/J** (`org.mariadb.jdbc:mariadb-java-client`) — LGPL* > *- **MySQL Connector/J** (`com.mysql:mysql-connector-j`) — GPL with FOSS > exception* > *- **SpotBugs Annotations** (`com.github.spotbugs:spotbugs-annotations`) — > LGPL* > > *These libraries may be present on the compile classpath during > development and testing but are excluded from* > *all distributed artifacts. If you need MySQL or MariaDB support (both are > deprecated; PostgreSQL is the* > *recommended database), download the appropriate JDBC driver from the > vendor's website and provide it at* > *runtime via `-Dloader.path` as shown in the [How to build the JAR > file](#how-to-build-the-jar-file) section above.* > > *As discussed in > [LEGAL-462](https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/LEGAL-462 > <https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/LEGAL-462>) and* > *[LEGAL-726](https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/LEGAL-726 > <https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/LEGAL-726>), this project therefore* > > > *This appears to be a significant change, so we should discuss it further > and comprehend its potential impact on existing deployments.* > > Regards, > Adam > > > On May 29, 2026, at 1:35 PM, Vlad <[email protected]> wrote: > > I created PR https://github.com/apache/fineract/pull/5899 to address an > ASF Category X license violation issue by excluding LGPL/GPL libraries from > all Apache Fineract distribution artifacts. > > During the PR review, it was suggested to move the discussion to the > mailing list to gather broader community feedback regarding the proposed > approach and its implications. > > >
