On 2014-11-10 11:32, Volker Simonis wrote:
On Mon, Nov 10, 2014 at 10:42 AM, Erik Joelsson
<erik.joels...@oracle.com> wrote:
On 2014-11-10 10:27, Volker Simonis wrote:
On Mon, Nov 10, 2014 at 9:08 AM, Erik Joelsson <erik.joels...@oracle.com>
wrote:
Hello,
I would certainly like to have these files updated, but unfortunately the
license on these files changed from GPL2 to GPL3. This essentially means
that the switch is non trivial from a legal perspective and the
impression
I've received when I last inquired about updating these files was that
it's
unlikely to ever happen unless a very strong case can be presented for
why
it's needed.
So the reason we have the over engineered solution for config.guess is
simply that it's much easier than getting legal approval for updating
these
files.
OK, but in that case I don't see any reason for keeping this
"over-engineered" solution at all. If there will not be any pulls from
upstream anyway then there's no reason for keeping these file
untouched. I'd propose then to just remove the wrappers and do all the
chenges right in the corresponding files (of course that's not the
topic of this change but should be done separately).
And again, the reason we didn't change the existing file but instead wrapped
it, was that we don't have explicit legal approval for doing derivative work
for these 3rd party files. Maybe it's ok, maybe it's not, I will not be the
person saying it is ok.
OK, now I got it. I thought we just use the wrappers because we want
to easily integrate the upstream versions. But instead it is only
because we don't want to edit these files because of legal
uncertainties.
So in that case that means we're also not allowed to edit 'config.sub'
and have to create a wrapper for it, right?
Yes, you are correct. We cannot modify these files.
As far as I understand, the legal reason for including these files are
the explicit exception:
# As a special exception to the GNU General Public License, if you
# distribute this file as part of a program that contains a
# configuration script generated by Autoconf, you may include it under
# the same distribution terms that you use for the rest of that program.
But this is just a distribution license, not a modification license.
From my IANAL point of view, this exception should be enough to
disregard if the file is also distributed under GPL2 or GPL3.
Unfortunately, as Erik says, our lawyers are apprehensive of GLP3. So
while we thought that we could be able to periodically sync these files
with upstream (and remove our external "patches" after a while), we have
not been able to do so.
So, this fix will need to do the same dance with config.sub as for
guess.guess. Unfortunately. :(
/Magnus
