On Dec  8 13:17, Ruben Van Boxem wrote:
> Hi Corinna,
> 
> With fear of my life I stick my head in a hornet's nest, with some remarks:
> 
> Archlinux solved this issue some years ago, and the bug report is cause for
> an interesting read with some pointers on how to solve this for the MSYS2
> folks: https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/5355
> Any GPLv3 project does not need the source distributed, only a link
> upstream should suffice (as long as it isn't taken offline by upstream of
> course, so a better solution would be nice).

We're not providing MSYS2 sources.  We're providing Cygwin sources.
All of our source distributions are different from MSYS2 sources.
You can't build MSYS2 from Cygwin sources without additional patches.

As for other packages, a lot of Cygwin packages contain source code
changes for patches which haven't been send upstream yet.  We're
*always* providing the exact source code which is required to rebuild
the same package, same version number.  The Cygwin distro is a moving
target, and we're deleting old releases of packages.  Any GPLed MSYS2
binary package which is not accompanied by the *exact* source code
archive required to build *this* version of the package, is in danger of
violating the GPL again.

There's something easily forgotten:

The GPL has not been created for developers or distributors in the first
place.  The GPL has been created for the users.  The idea was that all
users have the *right* to get the source codes of a GPLed binary package
at all times, in the state required to rebuild the binary package.

Whether or not the user actually takes on the offer, and whether or not
this inconveniences the developers or distributors was not a major concern.


Corinna

--
Corinna Vinschen
Cygwin Maintainer
Red Hat

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