Re: The term _linking_ in the licence

[Igor Pechtchanski <pechtcha@cs.nyu.edu>]

On Thu, 16 Jun 2005, David E. Meier wrote:

> I am confused about the GPL licence. Both suggested sites for reading
> before posting to this list about licencing only mention 'linking' with
> other programs.
>
> I face the following siuation:
>
> I have written a program in C# that makes use of tools like ssh, rsync and
> some bash shell built-ins. The C# program is the main .exe and does not
> link to any of the GPL-programs while building and therefore the C# binary
> does not contain any cygwin code. The GPL-exe's are called as system calls
> at runtime via the cmd.exe.
>
> Does the C# program need to be redistributed under the GPL as well?

AIUI -- no.  Linking usually involves the linked parts running in the same
memory space, while fork/exec (used by system()) loads the program in a
separate memory space.  But IANAL, and you can always say YANALATEYHSMBSI.

There's also the GPL FAQ which contains an answer to this exact question,
IIRC.
	Igor
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