Chuck Swiger scripsit:Someone decides to use X and Y together in a new program, Z. They write a Z.c which includes X.h and Y.h, and then links Z.o with X1.o, X2.o, Y1.o, Y2.o, etc to produce an executable Z.
Z derives from both X and Y: it depends on both and cannot stand alone.
Not so. It depends on X1, X2, Y1, Y2, etc. but not on X or Y (the executables).
Z the executable depends on X1.c, X2.c, Y1.c, etc, not X or Y as _executables_. However, Z also depends on both the X and Y as _projects_.
If the result of project X isn't a stand-alone executable, but a shared object such as a library (zlib, GNU readline, libssl) or something like an Apache module (DSO's, aka dynamicly shared objects), Z the executable may well depend on libX.so.
At one time, the FSF found it useful to encourage a distinction between compiling source units from a GNU project into a staticly linked executable, and between dynamicly linking a LGPL library into a seperate program. These two methods of using GPLed/LGPLed code had very different implications in terms of licensing.
-- -Chuck -- license-discuss archive is at http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3
