Re: [U-Boot-Users] [PATCH] add 'license' command to u-boot?commandline

2008-08-18 Thread Wolfgang Denk
Dear Harald Welte,

In message [EMAIL PROTECTED] you wrote:
 Hi!
 
 Since there has been support by Detlev and Stefan, I have modified the
 patch in a way to dynamically create the include/license.h file from the
 COPYING file by the use of a small C program and gzip combined with a
 Makefile rule.
 
 What do you think now?
 
 ---
 
 [PATCH] add 'license' command to u-boot command line
 
 The 'license' command includes the u-boot license (GPLv2) into the actual
 bootloader binary.  The license text can be shown interactively at the u-boot
 commandline.
 
 For products where the commandline can actually be accessed by the end user,
 this helps to prevent inadvertent GPL violations, since the GPLv2 license text
 can no longer be 'forgotten' to be included into the product.
 
 The 'license' command can be enabled by CONFIG_CMD_LICENSE.
 
 Signed-off-by: Harald Welte [EMAIL PROTECTED]

Applied, thanks.

Note that you got the commit  message  (above  the  '---'  line)  and
comments (below it) swapped.

Best regards,

Wolfgang Denk

-- 
DENX Software Engineering GmbH, MD: Wolfgang Denk  Detlev Zundel
HRB 165235 Munich, Office: Kirchenstr.5, D-82194 Groebenzell, Germany
Phone: (+49)-8142-66989-10 Fax: (+49)-8142-66989-80 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
On two occasions I have been  asked  [by  members  of  Parliament!],
'Pray,  Mr.  Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will
the right answers come out?' I am not able rightly to  apprehend  the
kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question.
- Charles Babbage

-
This SF.Net email is sponsored by the Moblin Your Move Developer's challenge
Build the coolest Linux based applications with Moblin SDK  win great prizes
Grand prize is a trip for two to an Open Source event anywhere in the world
http://moblin-contest.org/redirect.php?banner_id=100url=/
___
U-Boot-Users mailing list
U-Boot-Users@lists.sourceforge.net
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/u-boot-users


Re: [U-Boot-Users] [PATCH] add 'license' command to u-boot?commandline

2008-07-10 Thread Detlev Zundel
Hi,

 Wolfgang Denk wrote:
 In message [EMAIL PROTECTED] you wrote:
 Bleah on the small C program (nothing personal, just hate to add
 Yet Another Program to the build process).  How about using echo
 for prelim text (if necessary) and xxd to create the struct
 instead?  I like making maintenance Somebody Else's Problem
 (SEP[1])

 $ man xxd

 How standard is xxd across distributions and operating systems?

 Best regards,

 Wolfgang Denk

 In debian, it is (also) provided by the vim-common package.  It looks
 like vim (the project) is the origin of the command.  That was
 Harald's objection to using xxd.  Unfortunately, it appears to be a
 reasonable objection.

 $ dpkg -S /usr/bin/xxd
 vim-common: /usr/bin/xxd

 IMHO, vim and xxd are essential programs so I'm OK with using
 xxd. OTOH, I understand some people actually prefer emacs and may have
 a problem with requiring vim to be installed.  ;-/

Even though I'm an enthusiastic Emacs user, I have different reasons for
my vote.  As far as build dependencies go, I'd like to restrict this to
the LSB standard[1].  Xdd is not in there, so thats why I vote for the
small C program (unless we can adapt the script and use 'od').

Cheers
  Detlev

[1] 
http://refspecs.freestandards.org/LSB_3.2.0/LSB-Core-generic/LSB-Core-generic/toccommand.html

-- 
Perfection (in design) is achieved not when there is nothing more to add,
but rather when there is nothing more to take away.
-- Antoine de Saint-Exupery
--
DENX Software Engineering GmbH,  MD: Wolfgang Denk  Detlev Zundel
HRB 165235 Munich,  Office: Kirchenstr.5, D-82194 Groebenzell, Germany
Phone: (+49)-8142-66989-40 Fax: (+49)-8142-66989-80 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]

-
Sponsored by: SourceForge.net Community Choice Awards: VOTE NOW!
Studies have shown that voting for your favorite open source project,
along with a healthy diet, reduces your potential for chronic lameness
and boredom. Vote Now at http://www.sourceforge.net/community/cca08
___
U-Boot-Users mailing list
U-Boot-Users@lists.sourceforge.net
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/u-boot-users


Re: [U-Boot-Users] [PATCH] add 'license' command to u-boot?commandline

2008-07-10 Thread Stefan Roese
On Thursday 10 July 2008, Detlev Zundel wrote:
  IMHO, vim and xxd are essential programs so I'm OK with using
  xxd. OTOH, I understand some people actually prefer emacs and may have
  a problem with requiring vim to be installed.  ;-/

 Even though I'm an enthusiastic Emacs user, I have different reasons for
 my vote.  As far as build dependencies go, I'd like to restrict this to
 the LSB standard[1].  Xdd is not in there, so thats why I vote for the
 small C program (unless we can adapt the script and use 'od').

I would prefer this C program solution too.

Best regards,
Stefan

-
Sponsored by: SourceForge.net Community Choice Awards: VOTE NOW!
Studies have shown that voting for your favorite open source project,
along with a healthy diet, reduces your potential for chronic lameness
and boredom. Vote Now at http://www.sourceforge.net/community/cca08
___
U-Boot-Users mailing list
U-Boot-Users@lists.sourceforge.net
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/u-boot-users


Re: [U-Boot-Users] [PATCH] add 'license' command to u-boot?commandline

2008-07-10 Thread Harald Welte
On Thu, Jul 10, 2008 at 12:51:03PM +0200, Detlev Zundel wrote:

 Even though I'm an enthusiastic Emacs user, I have different reasons for
 my vote.  As far as build dependencies go, I'd like to restrict this to
 the LSB standard[1].  Xdd is not in there, so thats why I vote for the
 small C program (unless we can adapt the script and use 'od').

I think sticking to LSB for build dependencies is a very reasonable choice.

I still don't think the small C program is that much of a problem:

1) dependency tracking should ensure it is only built when the license
   feature is enabled by the board-level config.  I think this will be
   a minority case.

2) compilation of native programs has already to be possible since there
   are other native tools such as mkimage built during the compilation

Cheers,
-- 
- Harald Welte [EMAIL PROTECTED]  http://openmoko.org/

Software for the world's first truly open Free Software mobile phone

-
Sponsored by: SourceForge.net Community Choice Awards: VOTE NOW!
Studies have shown that voting for your favorite open source project,
along with a healthy diet, reduces your potential for chronic lameness
and boredom. Vote Now at http://www.sourceforge.net/community/cca08
___
U-Boot-Users mailing list
U-Boot-Users@lists.sourceforge.net
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/u-boot-users


Re: [U-Boot-Users] [PATCH] add 'license' command to u-boot?commandline

2008-07-10 Thread Jerry Van Baren
Harald Welte wrote:
 On Thu, Jul 10, 2008 at 12:51:03PM +0200, Detlev Zundel wrote:
 
 Even though I'm an enthusiastic Emacs user, I have different reasons for
 my vote.  As far as build dependencies go, I'd like to restrict this to
 the LSB standard[1].  Xdd is not in there, so thats why I vote for the
 small C program (unless we can adapt the script and use 'od').
 
 I think sticking to LSB for build dependencies is a very reasonable choice.
 
 I still don't think the small C program is that much of a problem:
 
 1) dependency tracking should ensure it is only built when the license
feature is enabled by the board-level config.  I think this will be
a minority case.
 
 2) compilation of native programs has already to be possible since there
are other native tools such as mkimage built during the compilation
 
 Cheers,

FWIIW, I agree with Detlev  Harald and withdraw my bleah objection.

Best regards,
gvb


-
Sponsored by: SourceForge.net Community Choice Awards: VOTE NOW!
Studies have shown that voting for your favorite open source project,
along with a healthy diet, reduces your potential for chronic lameness
and boredom. Vote Now at http://www.sourceforge.net/community/cca08
___
U-Boot-Users mailing list
U-Boot-Users@lists.sourceforge.net
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/u-boot-users


Re: [U-Boot-Users] [PATCH] add 'license' command to u-boot?commandline

2008-07-10 Thread Jean-Christophe PLAGNIOL-VILLARD
On 13:08 Thu 10 Jul , Stefan Roese wrote:
 On Thursday 10 July 2008, Detlev Zundel wrote:
   IMHO, vim and xxd are essential programs so I'm OK with using
   xxd. OTOH, I understand some people actually prefer emacs and may have
   a problem with requiring vim to be installed.  ;-/
 
  Even though I'm an enthusiastic Emacs user, I have different reasons for
  my vote.  As far as build dependencies go, I'd like to restrict this to
  the LSB standard[1].  Xdd is not in there, so thats why I vote for the
  small C program (unless we can adapt the script and use 'od').
 
 I would prefer this C program solution too.

I would prefer this C program solution too.

Best Regards,
J.

-
Sponsored by: SourceForge.net Community Choice Awards: VOTE NOW!
Studies have shown that voting for your favorite open source project,
along with a healthy diet, reduces your potential for chronic lameness
and boredom. Vote Now at http://www.sourceforge.net/community/cca08
___
U-Boot-Users mailing list
U-Boot-Users@lists.sourceforge.net
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/u-boot-users


Re: [U-Boot-Users] [PATCH] add 'license' command to u-boot?commandline

2008-07-09 Thread Jerry Van Baren
Harald Welte wrote:
 Hi!
 
 Since there has been support by Detlev and Stefan, I have modified the
 patch in a way to dynamically create the include/license.h file from the
 COPYING file by the use of a small C program and gzip combined with a
 Makefile rule.
 
 What do you think now?

Bleah on the small C program (nothing personal, just hate to add Yet 
Another Program to the build process).  How about using echo for prelim 
text (if necessary) and xxd to create the struct instead?  I like making 
maintenance Somebody Else's Problem (SEP[1])

$ man xxd
XXD(1)

NAME
xxd - make a hexdump or do the reverse.

[snip other possibly useful flags like column]

-i | -include
   output in C include file style. A complete static array 
definition is written  (named  after  the  input  file),
   unless xxd reads from stdin.

-l len | -len len
   stop after writing len octets.

Best regards,
gvb

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somebody_Else%27s_Problem

-
Sponsored by: SourceForge.net Community Choice Awards: VOTE NOW!
Studies have shown that voting for your favorite open source project,
along with a healthy diet, reduces your potential for chronic lameness
and boredom. Vote Now at http://www.sourceforge.net/community/cca08
___
U-Boot-Users mailing list
U-Boot-Users@lists.sourceforge.net
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/u-boot-users


Re: [U-Boot-Users] [PATCH] add 'license' command to u-boot?commandline

2008-07-09 Thread Jerry Van Baren
Wolfgang Denk wrote:
 In message [EMAIL PROTECTED] you wrote:
 Bleah on the small C program (nothing personal, just hate to add Yet 
 Another Program to the build process).  How about using echo for prelim 
 text (if necessary) and xxd to create the struct instead?  I like making 
 maintenance Somebody Else's Problem (SEP[1])

 $ man xxd
 
 How standard is xxd across distributions and operating systems?
 
 Best regards,
 
 Wolfgang Denk

In debian, it is (also) provided by the vim-common package.  It looks 
like vim (the project) is the origin of the command.  That was Harald's 
objection to using xxd.  Unfortunately, it appears to be a reasonable 
objection.

$ dpkg -S /usr/bin/xxd
vim-common: /usr/bin/xxd

IMHO, vim and xxd are essential programs so I'm OK with using xxd. 
OTOH, I understand some people actually prefer emacs and may have a 
problem with requiring vim to be installed.  ;-/

Best regards,
gvb

-
Sponsored by: SourceForge.net Community Choice Awards: VOTE NOW!
Studies have shown that voting for your favorite open source project,
along with a healthy diet, reduces your potential for chronic lameness
and boredom. Vote Now at http://www.sourceforge.net/community/cca08
___
U-Boot-Users mailing list
U-Boot-Users@lists.sourceforge.net
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/u-boot-users


Re: [U-Boot-Users] [PATCH] add 'license' command to u-boot commandline

2008-07-08 Thread Detlev Zundel
Hi,

 On Mon, Jul 07, 2008 at 04:53:14PM +0200, Wolfgang Denk wrote:
  I support this, but then we should *always* print this  message,  not
  only  when it starts in an interactive mode (or some guys could try
  to get away by disabling interactive mode).
 
 Such a restriction is (fortunately) not enforcable by the license, which

 It may not be enforcable by the license, but bu the Copyright holders
 of the code.

 only covers interactive interfaces.  Otherwise, it would make u-boot useless
 for environments where interactive mode would interfere with other uses of
 the serial port (or when no suitable device exists).

 Of course it  must  not  interfere  with  such  situations.  We  have
 standard  ways  to silence console output, and I did not mean to mess
 with these. But if there is console output,  a  GPL  message  would
 probably be a Good Thing.

Just to confirm, this was also my original intention.  If we output an
U-Boot ver. x.y.z we can surely also output U-Boot is Free Software
licensed under the GPL.

 Personally, I'd rather stay far away from invoking any clauses of a
 non-changeable license that dictate technical decisions such as which bytes
 to include in the final image.

 The GPL does not dictate anything - you have always  the  freedom  to
 write  anything  from scratch or buy the source code for any proprie-
 tary boot loader that comes under another license.  But  U-Boot  *is*
 licensed under GPL, and this is what makes it strong. Over the years,
 and  spending  more  and  more  time on stupid email discussions with
 companies who think they can ignore a  free  license  (while  being
 empatic  with their own closed source stuff), I came to beliving that
 a clearly visible label This box runs Free Software  is  a  really,
 really good idea.

Full ack.

Cheers
  Detlev

-- 
A stated design goal of Motif was to give the X Window System the
window management capabilities of HP's circa-1988 window manager and
the visual elegance of Microsoft Windows. We kid you not.
  -- The UNIX Haters Handbook
--
DENX Software Engineering GmbH,  MD: Wolfgang Denk  Detlev Zundel
HRB 165235 Munich,  Office: Kirchenstr.5, D-82194 Groebenzell, Germany
Phone: (+49)-8142-66989-40 Fax: (+49)-8142-66989-80 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]

-
Sponsored by: SourceForge.net Community Choice Awards: VOTE NOW!
Studies have shown that voting for your favorite open source project,
along with a healthy diet, reduces your potential for chronic lameness
and boredom. Vote Now at http://www.sourceforge.net/community/cca08
___
U-Boot-Users mailing list
U-Boot-Users@lists.sourceforge.net
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/u-boot-users


Re: [U-Boot-Users] [PATCH] add 'license' command to u-boot commandline

2008-07-07 Thread Detlev Zundel
Hi,

  [PATCH] add 'license' command to u-boot command line
  
  The 'license' command includes the u-boot license (GPLv2) into the actual
  bootloader binary.  The license text can be shown interactively at the 
  u-boot
  commandline.

I second such an addition.  Actually If I read the GPLv2 I see the
following clause:

  If the program is interactive, make it output a short notice like this
  when it starts in an interactive mode:
  
  Gnomovision version 69, Copyright (C) year name of author
  Gnomovision comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details type
  `show w'.  This is free software, and you are welcome to
  redistribute it under certain conditions; type `show c' for
  details.
  
  The hypothetical commands `show w' and `show c' should show the
  appropriate parts of the General Public License.  Of course, the
  commands you use may be called something other than `show w' and `show
  c'; they could even be mouse-clicks or menu items--whatever suits your
  program.
  
So maybe, we can (or should) introduce such a short This program is
GPL message into standard U-Boot, i.e. non-customizable.  If I read the
terms above, this is already required.

If wanted from a board maintainer, we can enable the license command
discussed in this thread, also enabling the for details type
'license'. part of the message.

Cheers
  Detlev

-- 
Less talking -- more hacking
-- Olin Shivers
--
DENX Software Engineering GmbH,  MD: Wolfgang Denk  Detlev Zundel
HRB 165235 Munich,  Office: Kirchenstr.5, D-82194 Groebenzell, Germany
Phone: (+49)-8142-66989-40 Fax: (+49)-8142-66989-80 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]

-
Sponsored by: SourceForge.net Community Choice Awards: VOTE NOW!
Studies have shown that voting for your favorite open source project,
along with a healthy diet, reduces your potential for chronic lameness
and boredom. Vote Now at http://www.sourceforge.net/community/cca08
___
U-Boot-Users mailing list
U-Boot-Users@lists.sourceforge.net
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/u-boot-users


Re: [U-Boot-Users] [PATCH] add 'license' command to u-boot commandline

2008-07-07 Thread Wolfgang Denk
In message [EMAIL PROTECTED] you wrote:
 On Mon, Jul 07, 2008 at 04:53:14PM +0200, Wolfgang Denk wrote:
  I support this, but then we should *always* print this  message,  not
  only  when it starts in an interactive mode (or some guys could try
  to get away by disabling interactive mode).
 
 Such a restriction is (fortunately) not enforcable by the license, which

It may not be enforcable by the license, but bu the Copyright holders
of the code.

 only covers interactive interfaces.  Otherwise, it would make u-boot useless
 for environments where interactive mode would interfere with other uses of
 the serial port (or when no suitable device exists).

Of course it  must  not  interfere  with  such  situations.  We  have
standard  ways  to silence console output, and I did not mean to mess
with these. But if there is console output,  a  GPL  message  would
probably be a Good Thing.

 Personally, I'd rather stay far away from invoking any clauses of a
 non-changeable license that dictate technical decisions such as which bytes
 to include in the final image.

The GPL does not dictate anything - you have always  the  freedom  to
write  anything  from scratch or buy the source code for any proprie-
tary boot loader that comes under another license.  But  U-Boot  *is*
licensed under GPL, and this is what makes it strong. Over the years,
and  spending  more  and  more  time on stupid email discussions with
companies who think they can ignore a  free  license  (while  being
empatic  with their own closed source stuff), I came to beliving that
a clearly visible label This box runs Free Software  is  a  really,
really good idea.

Best regards,

Wolfgang Denk

-- 
DENX Software Engineering GmbH, MD: Wolfgang Denk  Detlev Zundel
HRB 165235 Munich, Office: Kirchenstr.5, D-82194 Groebenzell, Germany
Phone: (+49)-8142-66989-10 Fax: (+49)-8142-66989-80 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not cer-
tain, and as far as they are certain, they do not refer  to  reality.
   -- Albert Einstein

-
Sponsored by: SourceForge.net Community Choice Awards: VOTE NOW!
Studies have shown that voting for your favorite open source project,
along with a healthy diet, reduces your potential for chronic lameness
and boredom. Vote Now at http://www.sourceforge.net/community/cca08
___
U-Boot-Users mailing list
U-Boot-Users@lists.sourceforge.net
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/u-boot-users


Re: [U-Boot-Users] [PATCH] add 'license' command to u-boot commandline

2008-07-06 Thread Wolfgang Denk
Dear Harald,

in message [EMAIL PROTECTED] you wrote:
 
 [PATCH] add 'license' command to u-boot command line
 
 The 'license' command includes the u-boot license (GPLv2) into the actual
 bootloader binary.  The license text can be shown interactively at the u-boot
 commandline.

When we started working on this boot loader (by then still under  the
name  8xxrom  or  maybe already PPCBoot, I don't remember exactly any
more) we decided not to implement such a feature because  of  (flash)
memory footprint reasons.

I still feel this is pretty heavy in terms of memory footprint versus
benefit ratio.

 For products where the commandline can actually be accessed by the end user,
 this helps to prevent inadvertent GPL violations, since the GPLv2 license text
 can no longer be 'forgotten' to be included into the product.
 
 The 'license' command can be enabled by CONFIG_CMD_LICENSE.

Well, I bet 9:1 that some vendors (and I guess you and me know a  few
of   them   pretty   well)   may   simply   forget  to  enable  the
CONFIG_CMD_LICENSE option, or they ship  U-Boot  in  a  configuration
where access to an interactive console interface is difficult or even
impossible (completely unintentionally, of course).

So the benefit in such cases is really small,  especially  since  the
License  text  cannot  be  found  easily in the binary image (as it's
compressed).


So I have to admit that I'm realy biased here. Let's see what other's
say.

...
 diff --git a/include/license.h b/include/license.h
 new file mode 100644
 index 000..7a638eb
 --- /dev/null
 +++ b/include/license.h
 @@ -0,0 +1,583 @@
 +/* bin2header converting 'gpl.gz' */
 +unsigned char gpl_gz[] = {
 + 0x1f, 0x8b, 0x08, 0x08, 0xb2, 0x10, 0x0d, 0x46, 0x00, 0x03,
 + 0x67, 0x70, 0x6c, 0x00, 0x9d, 0x5b, 0x5d, 0x77, 0xdb, 0x46,
 + 0x92, 0x7d, 0x4e, 0xff, 0x8a, 0x3e, 0x7e, 0x89, 0x74, 0x0e,
...
 + 0xed, 0x4e, 0x3f, 0xa2, 0x44, 0x9f, 0x3f, 0xb3, 0xbd, 0x6f,
 + 0xfe, 0x17, 0x84, 0xf3, 0x1b, 0xef, 0x12, 0x3b, 0x00, 0x00,
 +};

But I definitely object against such a binary, i. e. unreadable copy
of some license which nobody can check, and which quickly gets out of
sync with the COPYING file included with the source code.

If we add such a command, I insist  that  the  included  (compressed)
licenzse  text  must  be  generated on the fly from the COPYING file,
i. e. I will reject all attempts that cause two (probably  different)
copies of the license text included with U-Boot.

Um... while we are at it - maybe we should  clean  up  /  update  the
license headers a bit...

Um... thinking more about this I guess we should create a ToDo page
in the U-Boot wiki listing things that need to be done - some of them
are pure janitor work and could be picked up by volunteers even  with
limited experience with U-Boot but with free resources?

Best regards,

Wolfgang Denk

-- 
DENX Software Engineering GmbH, MD: Wolfgang Denk  Detlev Zundel
HRB 165235 Munich, Office: Kirchenstr.5, D-82194 Groebenzell, Germany
Phone: (+49)-8142-66989-10 Fax: (+49)-8142-66989-80 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Anarchy may not be the best form of government, but it's better  than
no government at all.

-
Sponsored by: SourceForge.net Community Choice Awards: VOTE NOW!
Studies have shown that voting for your favorite open source project,
along with a healthy diet, reduces your potential for chronic lameness
and boredom. Vote Now at http://www.sourceforge.net/community/cca08
___
U-Boot-Users mailing list
U-Boot-Users@lists.sourceforge.net
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/u-boot-users


Re: [U-Boot-Users] [PATCH] add 'license' command to u-boot commandline

2008-07-06 Thread Harald Welte
Hi Wolfgang!

On Sun, Jul 06, 2008 at 12:11:05PM +0200, Wolfgang Denk wrote:

 in message [EMAIL PROTECTED] you wrote:
  
  [PATCH] add 'license' command to u-boot command line
  
  The 'license' command includes the u-boot license (GPLv2) into the actual
  bootloader binary.  The license text can be shown interactively at the 
  u-boot
  commandline.
 
 When we started working on this boot loader (by then still under  the
 name  8xxrom  or  maybe already PPCBoot, I don't remember exactly any
 more) we decided not to implement such a feature because  of  (flash)
 memory footprint reasons.

Well, the same argument holds true for many other of u-boot's features.
However, they still get implemented, and the compilation/inclusion in
the (flash) image therefore is optional.  Users who don't want it, get
zero additional benefit.

 I still feel this is pretty heavy in terms of memory footprint versus
 benefit ratio.

that is probably from your point of view.

While I was working for OpenMoko, from a vendor perspective of a company
that wants to make 100% sure that the GPL is always followed, this kind
of feature makes a lot of sense.  Even if you just put a u-boot binary
on some ftp server (without the GPL text next to it) you still don't
risk any GPL infringement.

  For products where the commandline can actually be accessed by the end user,
  this helps to prevent inadvertent GPL violations, since the GPLv2 license 
  text
  can no longer be 'forgotten' to be included into the product.
  
  The 'license' command can be enabled by CONFIG_CMD_LICENSE.
 
 Well, I bet 9:1 that some vendors (and I guess you and me know a  few
 of   them   pretty   well)   may   simply   forget  to  enable  the
 CONFIG_CMD_LICENSE option, or they ship  U-Boot  in  a  configuration
 where access to an interactive console interface is difficult or even
 impossible (completely unintentionally, of course).

this is perfectly true.  I'm not saying that this patch is a
fire-and-forget solution for all device manufacturers.  I'm simply
saying that this solved a practical problem for OpenMoko.  It's a
straight-forward patch that doesn't impact any existing code or files,
and it comes at zero footprint impact if you don't want it.

 So the benefit in such cases is really small,  especially  since  the
 License  text  cannot  be  found  easily in the binary image (as it's
 compressed).

well, it's supposed to offer the license text at the command line, not
in the memory image..

 So I have to admit that I'm realy biased here. Let's see what other's
 say.

Ok.  I'm also waiting for the feedback of others.  Please keep in mind
tha this is a zero-maintenance patch that doesn't affect any existing
code.  So even while you might think the feature is esoteric, it is a
very painless feature to add.

 But I definitely object against such a binary, i. e. unreadable copy
 of some license which nobody can check, and which quickly gets out of
 sync with the COPYING file included with the source code.
 
 If we add such a command, I insist  that  the  included  (compressed)
 licenzse  text  must  be  generated on the fly from the COPYING file,
 i. e. I will reject all attempts that cause two (probably  different)
 copies of the license text included with U-Boot.

Ok, I agree.  Let's wait for the further comments on the list.  If I
have the feeling that such a feature would be accepted, I'll re-work the
patch to include a script and makefile hooks to generate the header file
with the compressed license text on-the-fly while compiling u-boot.

Regards,
-- 
- Harald Welte [EMAIL PROTECTED]   http://laforge.gnumonks.org/

Privacy in residential applications is a desirable marketing option.
  (ETSI EN 300 175-7 Ch. A6)


signature.asc
Description: Digital signature
-
Sponsored by: SourceForge.net Community Choice Awards: VOTE NOW!
Studies have shown that voting for your favorite open source project,
along with a healthy diet, reduces your potential for chronic lameness
and boredom. Vote Now at http://www.sourceforge.net/community/cca08___
U-Boot-Users mailing list
U-Boot-Users@lists.sourceforge.net
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/u-boot-users