BSL
Abbreviation with 2 meanings
| Stands for | Biosafety level |
|---|---|
| Meanings | 2 |
| Categories | Science & Engineering, Technology & Computing |
BSL has two meanings. It stands for Biosafety level (biology) or Business Source License (software).
Meanings of BSL at a glance
| # | BSL stands for | Context |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Biosafety level | Science & Engineering › Biology |
| 2 | Business Source License | Technology & Computing › Software |
1. Biosafety level
Science & Engineering · Biology Abbreviations
Four-tier system of laboratory containment practices, equipment and facility design matched to the risk of the organisms handled. BSL-1 covers harmless microbes in teaching labs, BSL-2 moderate risks such as Staphylococcus, BSL-3 airborne pathogens such as tuberculosis, and BSL-4 deadly viruses such as Ebola.
Example: Work with live SARS-CoV-2 must be performed in a BSL-3 laboratory with negative air pressure.
The levels are defined in the US manual Biosafety in Microbiological and Biomedical Laboratories (BMBL) and the WHO Laboratory Biosafety Manual. BSL-4 staff wear positive-pressure suits or work in sealed glove boxes, and relatively few such labs exist worldwide. Animal facilities use the parallel ABSL scale.
2. Business Source License
Technology & Computing · Software Abbreviations
Source-available license that lets anyone view, modify and use code non-commercially or within stated limits, then automatically converts to an open-source license after a fixed period, usually four years. It is not an OSI-approved open-source license.
Example: Since Terraform moved to the BSL, the community forked it as OpenTofu.
MariaDB created the license in 2016, and its SPDX identifier is BUSL-1.1. HashiCorp's 2023 switch to it for Terraform and other products was the most prominent adoption, aimed at stopping competitors from reselling the software as a service. Supporters see it as a sustainable compromise, critics as a retreat from open source. BSL can also refer to the unrelated Boost Software License.
Related abbreviations
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