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Licenses

The repository has two licenses. The path of a file selects the license.

The compiler and the language

Section titled “The compiler and the language”

Ranger-authored files outside gallery/ use the MIT license, unless a file or a directory states a different license.

The MIT license lets you compile a program that you write. You can sell that program. You can keep the source of that program closed.

The compiler does not set the license of the output. The license of the output follows the source of the program.

The compiler can write small helper functions into the output. Those helpers use the MIT license.

lib/ is on the MIT side. Since September 2026 that includes the EVG layout engine (lib/evg) and the image codecs (lib/image). A program that lays out a screen or a page through EVG is still your program.

Section titled “The gallery directory”

Ranger-authored files under gallery/ use the GNU Affero General Public License. The version is 3 or a later version, unless a file or a directory states a different license.

The gallery directory holds the application stack of Ranger:

  • the Office readers and editors
  • the DataGrid
  • the PDF and layout tools
  • evg_window, the dialog, toolbar and ruler layer that paints EVG through the gallery’s rasteriser
  • the other large applications

A program that imports a gallery module uses that module. The AGPL then applies to that program.

A compiled or transpiled form of a gallery program stays under the AGPL. The MIT license of the compiler does not change that.

A separate commercial license may be available for a gallery component. That license is an alternative to the AGPL. It is not an exception to the AGPL.

The direction of a dependency

Section titled “The direction of a dependency”

A gallery module can import a file from lib/ or from compiler/.

A file in lib/ or in compiler/ must not import a gallery module.

Third-party files

Section titled “Third-party files”

Some files in gallery/ keep the license of their authors. Each of those files has its own license file next to it. The gallery AGPL does not change the license of those files.

Section titled “Related pages”

Ranger 3.5.1 · commit f323fd4 · development build