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GCC Runtime Licensing
From: |
David Ayers |
Subject: |
GCC Runtime Licensing |
Date: |
Wed, 01 Apr 2009 07:24:54 +0200 |
Am Mittwoch, den 01.04.2009, 00:48 +0100 schrieb David Chisnall:
> >> Has anyone heard anything from the FSF about relicensing the GNU
> >> runtime? It is currently GPL with an exemption that only applies if
> >> code is compiled with GCC. I was told about a year ago that it would
> >> be moved to the same exemption as libc (which allows linking of any
> >> code), but haven't heard anything since then. I'm not really
> >> interested in working on adding Objective-C 2 support to the GNU
> >> runtime until this change has taken place.
> >
> > Just to be clear, I highly doubt (and I wouldn't support) a re-
> > licensing
> > of the GNU runtime as a whole. I was merely suggesting dual-licensing
> > the files which you'd like contribute yet retain under an MIT license.
>
> Currently, the GPL exemption for GNU libobjc only applies to code
> compiled with GCC. If we compile GNUstep with any other compiler,
> then this exemption does not hold. Since new versions of the runtime
> are GPLv3, this means we can't, for example, link PopplerKit (GPLv2-
> only) with it, and we can't link (for example) LuceneKit (Apache
> license) against the older GPLv2 version.
>
> GNU libc has a different exemption, which does not specify the
> compiler. I was told a year ago that GNU libobjc would move to using
> the same exemption, once the phrasing was worked out for the GPLv3.
> This will allow libobjc to be used in exactly the same way GNU libc is
> currently used.
>
> If this change isn't going to happen, then there is not much point
> working to support the GNU runtime with clang and, since there is
> little chance of GCC ever adding new features to Objective-C, there is
> no point in my adding new features (properties, non-fragile ivars) to
> GNU libobjc.
Indeed I believe this concern has just been addressed:
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gcc-exception.html
http://gcc.gnu.org/ml/gcc/2009-04/msg00005.html
Thanks for the clarification.
Cheers,
David
- GCC Runtime Licensing,
David Ayers <=