On 20.05.2011 22:16, Rainer Jung wrote:
> Igor wrote a patch that allows to buildconf httpd against an installed
> apr / apu. That helps people who want to play with httpd from svn, but
> do not want to use recent apr /apu as well and instead build against
> installed apr / apu.
>
> To accomplish this, we have to install a few files from the apr / apu
> build systems. Two of those files are config.(guess|sub), which are
> actually GPL with the following important exception clause:
>
> # 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.
>
> So shipping with source is fine. But what happens if we copy it into the
> installation directory during install? Will the files be still licensed
> by the Apache Software LICENSE?
>
> Logically I would say yes, because by the above clause we are allowed to
> ship it under the Apache Software License ("the same distribution terms
> that you use for the rest of that program") with the source. Surely that
> license allows the file to be installed with the same license as APR, so
> it should stay Apache License after being installed.
>
> But IANAL.
>
> Other solution would be to keep a copy of config.(guess|sub) in the
> httpd source tree. Any opinion? Copy, or ask legal?
>
> Regards,
>
> RainerThere's of course another option: to /generate/ config.guess into the install location, as a simple shell script that just returns the machine identifier that was used by configure (so, either the output of config guess, or the value of --target for cross builds). Such a generated script can definitely be distributed with any license you like, since the output (and names) of programs can't fall under the GPL umbrella. -- Brane
