From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Jeff King Subject: Re: Apple violating git LGPL? Date: Wed, 6 Aug 2014 16:51:45 -0400 Message-ID: <20140806205145.GB22592@peff.net> References: <20140806184304.GB21254@peff.net> <53E287D4.1050106@baywinds.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Cc: Robert P Fischer , git@vger.kernel.org To: Bruce Ferrell X-From: git-owner@vger.kernel.org Wed Aug 06 22:51:53 2014 Return-path: Envelope-to: gcvg-git-2@plane.gmane.org Received: from vger.kernel.org ([209.132.180.67]) by plane.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1XF8Bc-00046w-FI for gcvg-git-2@plane.gmane.org; Wed, 06 Aug 2014 22:51:52 +0200 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1753516AbaHFUvs (ORCPT ); Wed, 6 Aug 2014 16:51:48 -0400 Received: from cloud.peff.net ([50.56.180.127]:47232 "HELO peff.net" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with SMTP id S1752588AbaHFUvs (ORCPT ); Wed, 6 Aug 2014 16:51:48 -0400 Received: (qmail 14035 invoked by uid 102); 6 Aug 2014 20:51:48 -0000 Received: from c-71-63-4-13.hsd1.va.comcast.net (HELO sigill.intra.peff.net) (71.63.4.13) (smtp-auth username relayok, mechanism cram-md5) by peff.net (qpsmtpd/0.84) with ESMTPA; Wed, 06 Aug 2014 15:51:48 -0500 Received: by sigill.intra.peff.net (sSMTP sendmail emulation); Wed, 06 Aug 2014 16:51:45 -0400 Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <53E287D4.1050106@baywinds.org> Sender: git-owner@vger.kernel.org Precedence: bulk List-ID: X-Mailing-List: git@vger.kernel.org Archived-At: On Wed, Aug 06, 2014 at 12:53:56PM -0700, Bruce Ferrell wrote: > On 08/06/2014 11:43 AM, Jeff King wrote: > > snippage here 8< >8 > >As it happens, though, they _do_ modify the git that they distribute. I > >know at least that they bake-in the osxkeychain helper config in away that > >the user cannot turn off. There may be more changes, but I haven't done a > >full diff. And they do provide the source: > >https://www.opensource.apple.com/source/Git/ > Is that a plugin? if not what about proprietary plugins? How are they > affected by the license is this case? I don't know exactly what you mean by "plugin" here. osxkeychain is a separate program found in git's contrib directory. You point git at it by setting your credential.helper config to "osxkeychain". However, in the Apple version, they have hardcoded that config into the git binary, and you can't turn it off (you can add additional helpers, but you can't undo the keychain helper). So I don't think there is any licensing question about what they have done[1]. I do not know offhand of any proprietary credential helpers. They do interact with git over a pipe, and their primary function is to feed data to git. My understanding is that there are some people who believe that makes them derivative works of git (i.e., that talking RPC over a pipe to avoid linking does not get around the GPL), but there are others who would consider them separate programs. -Peff [1] Whether what they have done is smart is another matter. I looked at the diff Apple's Git-48 and v1.8.5.2 (on which it seems to be based). There aren't a huge number of changes, but some of them baffle me. Why bake-in credential.helper when you can set it in /etc/gitconfig? Why default core.trustctime to false when you can set it via /etc/gitconfig? Etc. I wish they would work with the configurability tools that we already provide, and if those are not sufficient, work with us to make git more configurable. But AFAIK whoever is responsible for those changes has never participated on the mailing list.