Re: Fwd: permission to re-license strbuf subsystem as LGPL

[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

 



Brandon Casey wrote:

> Jonathan Nieder suggested using a more permissive license than LGPL.
> BSD seems to have the most support.  If the remaining contributors
> agree, then I'm fine with licensing under BSD.

A few words of clarification.  My opinion shouldn't matter much here
--- I am more of a bystander and user than a contributor to strbuf. :)

The main reason I suggested a permissive license is that the strbuf
lib contains some inline functions and I do not want it to be
complicated to use them.  To comply with the LGPL, in addition to
releasing any changes made to the library, distributors usually do one
of a few things:

 a. offer the source code for your work that uses the library in
    addition to any binaries,

 b. use dynamic linking, or

 c. provide object files for your work that uses the library, so it
    can be re-linked against a modified version of the library.

(b) and (c) don't handle inline functions.  Luckily, there is a way out:

 d. only use the inline functions from within a subset of your work
    for which you are willing to provide source.  Dynamically link to
    it or provide object files to allow re-linking.

With that in mind, I have nothing against the use of the LGPL here
(and one of the two main authors of the strbuf lib explained a good
reason to prefer it over the BSD license).  The inline functions in
the strbuf lib are pretty small, so the above was probably not too
important in the first place.

Thanks, and sorry for the unnecessary noise.

Regards,
Jonathan
--
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe git" in
the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html


[Index of Archives]     [Linux Kernel Development]     [Gcc Help]     [IETF Annouce]     [DCCP]     [Netdev]     [Networking]     [Security]     [V4L]     [Bugtraq]     [Yosemite]     [MIPS Linux]     [ARM Linux]     [Linux Security]     [Linux RAID]     [Linux SCSI]     [Fedora Users]