Tobias Oberstein <tobias.oberstein@xxxxxx> writes: > now i became aware of a FAQ (for MinGW) about GCC and profiling: > > [quote from http://www.mingw.org/mingwfaq.shtml: > Profiled code, which is code compiled and linked with the -pg option > for runtime profiling, also falls under the GNU General Public > License. CAUTION: do not distribute proprietary source with profiling > enabled. The profiling library is covered by the GPL which infects > your product to conform to the GPL as well. > ] This may well be true on MinGW. The profiling library used on MinGW may fall under the GPL. Whether it does or not is a MinGW issue, not a gcc issue. > i guess when building software with GCC and profiling enabled, GCC > puts profiling code into the resulting executable. the resulting > exectuable would be covered by GPL and thus not immediately > publishing the source that led to that executable means a > violation of the GPL. This is not true on most platforms. On most platforms, the profiling library (e.g., -lpg and gcrt1.o) is part of the system. The profiling library is never part of gcc. gcc itself imposes no restrictions on code compiled with profiling. Any such restrictions come from somewhere else. > or does it only mean i must release source if i distribute an > executable containing GCC profiling code? and what does > "distribute" then include? Correct. The GPL only comes into effect when you distribute code. See the GPL FAQ: http://www.fsf.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html > > If you have concerns about GCC and use in your product, you should > > contact your company's lawyers and have them review the GCC GPL & > > extensions, and read and interpret the GCC GPL & extensions for > > yourself. > > > > well, do you think i can realistically find a lawyer who > understands all legal implication of using GCC/GPL'ed tools in > building software with GPL-incompatible license? you know one? Nobody understands all the legal implications, because some of them are unknown at this time. That said, any competent IP lawyer should be able to advise you. > does it mean you would go posting to a list on http://www.fsf.org > instead? Try the newsgroup gnu.misc.discuss. Ian
