From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Jonathan Nieder Subject: Re: Fwd: permission to re-license strbuf subsystem as LGPL Date: Fri, 23 Sep 2011 17:16:11 -0500 Message-ID: <20110923221611.GA2548@elie> References: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Cc: git@vger.kernel.org To: Brandon Casey X-From: git-owner@vger.kernel.org Sat Sep 24 00:16:24 2011 Return-path: Envelope-to: gcvg-git-2@lo.gmane.org Received: from vger.kernel.org ([209.132.180.67]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1R7E2h-0003o9-Lj for gcvg-git-2@lo.gmane.org; Sat, 24 Sep 2011 00:16:23 +0200 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1752533Ab1IWWQT (ORCPT ); Fri, 23 Sep 2011 18:16:19 -0400 Received: from mail-gy0-f174.google.com ([209.85.160.174]:55228 "EHLO mail-gy0-f174.google.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1752276Ab1IWWQT (ORCPT ); Fri, 23 Sep 2011 18:16:19 -0400 Received: by gyg10 with SMTP id 10so2885072gyg.19 for ; Fri, 23 Sep 2011 15:16:18 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=date:from:to:cc:subject:message-id:references:mime-version :content-type:content-disposition:in-reply-to:user-agent; bh=hnVurzxhJhmhWeP1B2MA+O2qYjbyh87OH5abwEXveME=; b=jizzT4RXoiw0V5IE/ZZYiWHv1RWTgsq+sj4VAgwm7w2HK5JyOZUYt55QWOTcKaDTv3 CNsNjGjDSnectcyhptAq8NoA+7h0HuwBmezQFdQcjDY880YIvpIebm4JoARYCxaZCwR6 Lbpv+OYONsNnh4J6p4xMu87KTCf/BzW4e2DLQ= Received: by 10.236.115.70 with SMTP id d46mr25225071yhh.83.1316816178474; Fri, 23 Sep 2011 15:16:18 -0700 (PDT) Received: from elie (99-120-124-35.lightspeed.cicril.sbcglobal.net. [99.120.124.35]) by mx.google.com with ESMTPS id g66sm18272012yhh.12.2011.09.23.15.16.17 (version=SSLv3 cipher=OTHER); Fri, 23 Sep 2011 15:16:17 -0700 (PDT) Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.21+46 (b01d63af6fea) (2011-07-01) Sender: git-owner@vger.kernel.org Precedence: bulk List-ID: X-Mailing-List: git@vger.kernel.org Archived-At: Brandon Casey wrote: > Jonathan Nieder suggested using a more permissive license than LGPL. > BSD seems to have the most support. If the remaining contributors > agree, then I'm fine with licensing under BSD. A few words of clarification. My opinion shouldn't matter much here --- I am more of a bystander and user than a contributor to strbuf. :) The main reason I suggested a permissive license is that the strbuf lib contains some inline functions and I do not want it to be complicated to use them. To comply with the LGPL, in addition to releasing any changes made to the library, distributors usually do one of a few things: a. offer the source code for your work that uses the library in addition to any binaries, b. use dynamic linking, or c. provide object files for your work that uses the library, so it can be re-linked against a modified version of the library. (b) and (c) don't handle inline functions. Luckily, there is a way out: d. only use the inline functions from within a subset of your work for which you are willing to provide source. Dynamically link to it or provide object files to allow re-linking. With that in mind, I have nothing against the use of the LGPL here (and one of the two main authors of the strbuf lib explained a good reason to prefer it over the BSD license). The inline functions in the strbuf lib are pretty small, so the above was probably not too important in the first place. Thanks, and sorry for the unnecessary noise. Regards, Jonathan