2009/6/22 Nico Coesel <[email protected]>: > As far as I can understand the problem is that OpenOCD > cannot be distributed as a Windows binary linked against a > USB device driver which is non-GPL code. This makes me wonder > how the executable is to be run on Windows. Somewhere the code > must be linked against Microsoft's APIs which are non-GPL as well. > So what is the difference between a non-GPL USB device driver and > the Windows APIs? According to Zach the GPL chain extends up and > down infinitely but I don't think that is the case. So it seems there are > some (practical) boundaries to GPL after all. >
David Brownell answered before that there is a system library exception in GPL. Those Windows OS core components are installed along with Windows. That is why you can have GPL software running under Windows (or other non-GPL OS). http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#GPLIncompatibleLibs The FTDI driver/DLL may not be considered as system library according to David even though there is a gray area that they can be installed using Windows Updates (but may not be for the JTAG debuggers with custom VID/PID combinations). -- Xiaofan http://mcuee.blogspot.com _______________________________________________ Openocd-development mailing list [email protected] https://lists.berlios.de/mailman/listinfo/openocd-development
