Cc'ed a bunch of mpich folks. Dave forwarded this link, which has some good information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_General_Public_License#Point_of_view:_dynamic_and_static_linking_violate_GPL If libpci was disabled by default, would hwloc still come under the same GPL issue? I checked libnuma, which seems to be LGPL (phew!), but didn't look at the remaining libraries hwloc uses. -- Pavan On 02/05/2013 04:09 PM US Central Time, Paul Hargrove wrote: > IANAL > > I think that it would be possible to say something like: > While hwloc is BSD licensed, it may potentially link to libraries > with more restrictive license terms. > > However, that is more or less true of ANY software. > For instance, if I compile some BSD licensed software on AIX with > '-static' then IBM's libc ends up in my binary. > I am not saying that IBM's libc poses any specific issues, just using it > as an example. > So, this is in no way a unique situation for hwloc. > > I think that if hwloc were to explicitly list libpci then we start a > dangerous precedent under which users may expect us > to continuously "audit" the libs used on various systems. > > -Paul > > > > On Tue, Feb 5, 2013 at 1:50 PM, Jeff Squyres (jsquyres) > <jsquy...@cisco.com <mailto:jsquy...@cisco.com>> wrote: > > It was just pointed out to me that libpci is licensed under the GPL > (not the LGPL). > > Hence, even though hwloc is BSD, if it links to libpci.*, it's tainted. > > IANAL, this is not legal advice, yadda yadda yadda. But does this > jive with other peoples' understanding? > > This has caused a problem for an unnamed vendor who wanted to ship a > binary tool that linked against libhwloc (that linked against > libpci). Yoinks. > > The complaint to me was that hwloc needs to be clearer about this in > its documentation. > > Does this sound right? > > -- > Jeff Squyres > jsquy...@cisco.com <mailto:jsquy...@cisco.com> > For corporate legal information go to: > http://www.cisco.com/web/about/doing_business/legal/cri/ > > > _______________________________________________ > hwloc-devel mailing list > hwloc-de...@open-mpi.org <mailto:hwloc-de...@open-mpi.org> > http://www.open-mpi.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/hwloc-devel > > > > > -- > Paul H. Hargrove phhargr...@lbl.gov > <mailto:phhargr...@lbl.gov> > Future Technologies Group > Computer and Data Sciences Department Tel: +1-510-495-2352 > Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Fax: +1-510-486-6900 > > > _______________________________________________ > hwloc-devel mailing list > hwloc-de...@open-mpi.org > http://www.open-mpi.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/hwloc-devel > -- Pavan Balaji http://www.mcs.anl.gov/~balaji
