On Thu, Apr 11, 2013 at 10:39 AM, Bob Friesenhahn < bfrie...@simple.dallas.tx.us> wrote:
> >> 2. Must any generated files (as produced by running m4 on my files which >> m4_include m4sugar.m4) be distributed under GPL3? (I'm assuming the >> Autoconf exception as documented at >> http://www.gnu.org/licenses/**autoconf-exception-3.0.html<http://www.gnu.org/licenses/autoconf-exception-3.0.html>applies, >> since >> m4sugar is part of Autoconf, so this would be a "no".) >> > > This might be correct but not because of the Autoconf configure script > exception since you are not using Autoconf to prepare a configure script > (Autoconf's typical output). Instead, you are taking advantage of a file > delivered with Autoconf. The output from these macros does not constitute > 'typical output of Autoconf' since the normal output of Autoconf is well > defined (e.g. a configure script). > Ok, that makes sense. > The reason why it may be ok to use the output under your own terms is > because copyrighted content of m4sugar is not copied to the output. A quick > inspection of m4sugar shows that it provides only algorithms and does not > copy parts of itself to its output. That is the reason why I assume that > it is ok to use the output under your own terms. > > And indeed, if you run m4 on m4sugar.m4 and no other files, the output will be empty. m4sugar is the very first thing my project processes with m4, and I'm not doing anything funny with it that would cause it to copy parts of itself to the output. The only thing I'm doing with m4sugar is calling the macros it defines. I am not a lawyer. Even still, thanks for your comments. -Pete _______________________________________________ Autoconf mailing list Autoconf@gnu.org https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/autoconf
