> Does log4net depend on any 3rd party libraries? It must at > least depend on the C# runtime. How is that called, by the way?
Log4net depends on a number of libraries, none of these are shipped with the release.
To build log4net uses NAnt (http://nant.sf.net) which is GPL.
As far as I am concerned, building log4net using Nant should not trigger GPL's viral properties. However, such decisions are usually made at a higher level.
The unit tests require Nunit (http://www.nunit.org/) which uses a zlib/libpng style OSI License.
It's quite similar to the BSD license so depending on Nunit should be OK.
Log4net is build on a number of ECMA standard CLI platforms:
- Mono 1.0 (GPL) - Microsoft .NET Framework 1.0 & 1.1 & Compact Framework 1.0 (Closed Source) - Microsoft SSCLI 1.0 (Shared Source)
As far as I am aware there are no licensing issues with linking to the above runtimes. The binary interface and library definitions are specified by an ECMA/ISO standard regardless of the underlying implementation. Even if this was not the case, and the only implementation was available from MS, this would be very similar to the situation with Java.
I apologize for asking the .Net dependency question so late in the game. It must sound terribly
stupid. However, I am not aware of Apache's position on the question. I suppose the foundation has an opinion on the matter.
The release package includes project files for Microsoft Visual Studio .NET, however this is not a dependency.
Since you created the project files for MVS .Net, I reckon they are copyrighted by Apache.
The library source code is written in ECMA standard C#. The examples are written in C#, VB.NET, Managed C++, and JScript. The C#, VB.NET and JScript compilers are included in the Microsoft .NET Framework redistributable. The Managed C++ compiler is available in a separate download; the Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003. The Mono project is working on an open source version of the VB.NET compiler.
Thank you for your really informative message. As you probably already realized, these questions go well beyond my level of competence. I am going to relay this discussion to the incubator mailing list.
Nicko
-- Ceki G�lc�
The complete log4j manual: http://www.qos.ch/log4j/
