Please redirect me if I'm posting in the wrong place: I am writing GPL code.
I want to use pieces of code from LGPL libraries. I would prefer not to distribute the entire library when I only need a few modules. So I have been stripping out the modules needed, writing a new Makefile to compile them independently, and bundling the stripped-down library with my code, placed into a separate subdirectory. The source code has not been modified, and I've left the entire set of licensing and documentation files in the subdirectory, as well as a brief file describing what I've done. Is this legal? I wasn't anticipating problems since my code is under the GPL, but in reading the LGPL I was concerned about the following paragraphs: *** Begin quote: d) If a facility in the modified Library refers to a function or a table of data to be supplied by an application program that uses the facility, other than as an argument passed when the facility is invoked, then you must make a good faith effort to ensure that, in the event an application does not supply such function or table, the facility still operates, and performs whatever part of its purpose remains meaningful. (For example, a function in a library to compute square roots has a purpose that is entirely well-defined independent of the application. Therefore, Subsection 2d requires that any application-supplied function or table used by this function must be optional: if the application does not supply it, the square root function must still compute square roots.) End quote *** I don't entirely follow the legalese, but it seems to indicate that there may be problems with stripping functionality out of an LGPL library. I'm hoping the phrase "remains meaningful" will help me: that if I remove bits of a library which I don't need, their purpose is no longer meaningful, so I don't need to worry. I hope. Any help, or redirection to a better place to post this, would be appreciated. -- --jude hungerford. _______________________________________________ gnu-misc-discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/gnu-misc-discuss
