[U-Boot] exports.h and the GPL

[Mike Frysinger <vapier@gentoo.org>]

On Friday 24 February 2012 13:10:36 Michael Walle wrote:
> As far as i know applications can use functions defined in exports.h
> without being licensed under the GPL.

correct, that is what the COPYING file states

> Who is responsible to define which functions are exported? Are the
> currently exported functions the only ones available to closed source
> applications or is it possible to add further ones which are needed.

someone posts a request and the maintainers evaluate it.  typically the 
exported funcs should be "high level" and not hooks into u-boot internals.

> Functions may need arguments which are pointers to some structures. These
> structures are likely be defined in some GPL'ed header file and must not be
> used, i guess? So the exported functions must only use integral data types,
> opaque pointers and structures which are not defined in a GPL'ed header
> file.

which is why the exported funcs are "high level" and not ones that get into 
low level stuff that would necessitate passing structs.  the other problem with 
struct passing is that they tend to break the ABI layer.
-mike
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