From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (qmail 16284 invoked by alias); 23 Apr 2012 17:19:53 -0000 Received: (qmail 16129 invoked by uid 22791); 23 Apr 2012 17:19:49 -0000 X-SWARE-Spam-Status: No, hits=-2.1 required=5.0 tests=AWL,BAYES_00,FREEMAIL_ENVFROM_END_DIGIT,FREEMAIL_FROM,KHOP_THREADED,RCVD_IN_DNSWL_NONE X-Spam-Check-By: sourceware.org Received: from smtp02.smtpout.orange.fr (HELO smtp.smtpout.orange.fr) (80.12.242.124) by sourceware.org (qpsmtpd/0.43rc1) with ESMTP; Mon, 23 Apr 2012 17:19:35 +0000 Received: from treguer.localnet ([90.32.166.145]) by mwinf5d49 with ME id 1VKZ1j00438YtCy03VKZj4; Mon, 23 Apr 2012 19:19:33 +0200 From: "Yann E. MORIN" To: crossgcc@sourceware.org, Per-Arnold.Blaasmo@atmel.com Subject: Re: License text in finished built toolchain? Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2012 17:19:00 -0000 User-Agent: KMail/1.13.5 (Linux/3.3.2-treguer; KDE/4.4.5; x86_64; ; ) References: <4F911B40.3000002@atmel.com> In-Reply-To: <4F911B40.3000002@atmel.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: Text/Plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-Id: <201204231919.32752.yann.morin.1998@free.fr> Mailing-List: contact crossgcc-help@sourceware.org; run by ezmlm Precedence: bulk List-Id: List-Subscribe: List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: , Sender: crossgcc-owner@sourceware.org X-SW-Source: 2012-04/txt/msg00032.txt.bz2 Per, All, Firts off, the usual disclaimer: I am not a lawyer, you should consult a competent lawyer and/or your company's legal departement for definitive advice. On Friday 20 April 2012 10:16:00 Per Arnold Blaasmo wrote: > If I use Crosstool-ng to build a GNU Toolchain and redistribute that > with my own product. > > Do we need to have the license files in the finished build tree? That's my understanding that the license texts for GPL and LGPL components be made available alongside with the distributed binaries. The same goes with the license texts for the BSD-like components. Whether you want to include these license texts in the same archive (a tarball or any other packaging of your choice), or as files residing side-by-side with the distributed archive, is up to you to decide. I for one would suggest that you bundle in the same archive, because: - you have the guarantee that the recipient of the archive does get the license texts, without requiring additional downloads; - if you distribute the archive on a physical medium, you are sure that the license texts wil actually *be* on the distribution medium; - the license texts will follow any subsequent distribution of the archive, if the recipient chooses to do so. > Should crosstool-ng copy those in to the finished tree? That's my opinion that crostool-NG should *not* do that automatically for you. There are a few reasons for my position: - you and/or your lawyer have to fully understand the licensing terms of each component, and decide and your own what those licenses imply; - some components are multi-licensed; for example part of gcc are GPLv3+ while some other parts are LGPLv3+; - the licensing terms for a specific component may vary with the version of this component; for example gcc 4.2 and earlier were GPLv2+ and LGPv2.1+, while gcc 4.3 and later are GPLv3+ and LGPLv3+; - the licensing terms may change depending on the options you used when building the toolchain (I do not have a example coming to mind right now); - you anyway have to make available the complete and corresponding source code for the components that are used in the toolchain (at least those that are under copyleft licenses, such as GPL or LGPL). So, in theory, crosstool-NG *could* copy some of the license texts for you, but you would always have to manually check that the correct licenses have been copied, and that nothing was missing, and that a license text that does not apply was not copied. > What about crosstool-ng's license? > Do we need to add that to the finished built toolchain? This is a tricky question. The toolchain is generated by crosstool-NG, so the license of crosstool-NG does *not* apply to the toolchain (the same way that the license of gcc does not apply to the binary generated by gcc). However, the license of crosstool-NG explicitly states that crostool-NG is what the GPL names "scripts used to control compilation and installation of the executable." In my understanding, for example in the gcc context, this sentence applies to the scripts used to build gcc. I believe that crosstool-NG is what the GPL refers to in the sentence quoted above. So, it is my understanding that, if you distribute a toolchain built with crosstool-NG, you have to pass the complete and corresponding source code for the crosstool-NG you used to build said toolchain. Also, it is my understanding that the crosstool-NG's .config file is part of the afore-mentioned scripts, and that you have to distribute it as if it were part of crosstool-NG. This is already done automatically for you by crosstool-NG, which installs the script bin/.ct-ng.config in the toolchain install directory. Also, do not forget that some components in the toolchain may also use a .config-like file; for example uClibc has a .config file, so you must provide it along with the uClibc sources, and eglibc can use config files which you also must provide with eglibc's sources. So, with respect to crosstool-NG, I would suggest that you put the archive of the crosstool-NG you used, prominently side-by-side with the archive of the toolchain you distribute. You may of course decide to distribute a single archive with everything in it: - the toolchain, in binary form - the crosstool-NG sources - the crosstool-NG's .config - the components' complete and corresponding source codes - the many license texts Using an existing packaging scheme (eg. rpm and/or deb) /may/ make this easy for you. YMMV, as they say. Again, *none* of the was legal advice. You should really consult seek legal advice from your lawyer and/or your company's legal departement. Should you not know lawyers competent in the field, you may ask me, and I would happily point you to some I know, and that you may be able to contract to help you. Regards, Yann E. MORIN. -- .-----------------.--------------------.------------------.--------------------. | Yann E. MORIN | Real-Time Embedded | /"\ ASCII RIBBON | Erics' conspiracy: | | +33 662 376 056 | Software Designer | \ / CAMPAIGN | ___ | | +33 223 225 172 `------------.-------: X AGAINST | \e/ There is no | | http://ymorin.is-a-geek.org/ | _/*\_ | / \ HTML MAIL | v conspiracy. | '------------------------------^-------^------------------^--------------------' -- For unsubscribe information see http://sourceware.org/lists.html#faq