Re: The GPL "Special Exception" and yacc.c

[Akim Demaille]

Le 12 mars 09 à 16:25, David Wootelhoff a écrit :

> On 3/6/09, David Wootelhoff <address@hidden> wrote:
>
> > I'm considering using a Bison generated parser in a closed source
> > commercial product.
> >
> > I see that the C file output by Bison has a section starting "As a
> > special exception" which refers to "the Bison parser skeleton". Does
> > this paragraph mean I can modify yacc.c itself (which I understand is
> > the skeleton) and still keep my generated parser closed source? My
> > initial interpretation was that this was indeed the case, but I see
> > that yacc.c itself only contains the standard GPL notice and no
> > "Special Exception". (I'm aware that the special exception definitely
> > applies to the bison generated C file).
> >
> > I'd like to use Bison with a modified skeleton but I don't want to
> > violate the GPL. Any clarification is much appreciated.
>
> Hi, does anyone know the answer to the above question, or have any
> hints about how I might find it?
>
> I'm unsure if the question is so trivial that no-one is interested in
> answering it, or so difficult that people can't answer it ;)

Hi David,

We need to know whether this package of yours is a parser generator  
(in which case there is a very specific clause in the license).  And  
I'm curious about the nature of the changes you'd do in the skeleton  
(but answering this question is not important).