Re: [Savannah-users] Hosting of FLOSS project that links against CUDA library

[Sylvain Beucler]

Hi,

> I am considering registering a scientific simulation software project
> on savannah.nongnu.org, which in comparison to other public git
> hosting facilities[1] seems to be the best match, with web space for a
> project homepage, mailing list, and project hosting software under a
> FLOSS license.
> 
> The simulation package is licensed under the GPL. The program contains
> a simulation backend that uses GPGPU for acceleration, which is compiled
> with the NVIDIA CUDA compiler and links against the non-free CUDA
> libraries (CUDA driver and CUDA runtime).
> 
> The GPL v3 includes an exception clause that allows linking to non-GPL
> "System Libraries", e.g. libraries accompanying the compiler. It would
> seem that the CUDA libraries fulfill the definition of "System Libraries"
> and thus fall under the exception clause[2].
> [2] http://lists.ssl.berkeley.edu/pipermail/boinc_dev/2009-August/014816.html

There do not seem to be a concensus on this.

> Would a FLOSS project using CUDA be accepted on savannah.nongnu.org?

Independently of GPL compatibility, Savannah only accepts projects
that work without proprietary dependencies.

Consequently, as long as you use CUDA to access the GPU, your project
does not fit our hosting requirements.

-- 
Sylvain