Re: Converting the gcc backend to a library?

[Per Bothner <per at bothner dot com>]

Jeffrey A Law <law@cygnus.com> writes:

> If it takes a significant step towards the ability to turn the backend into
> a shared library, then it has that kind of potential.  Changes of that nature
> would have to be OK'd by the steering committee, not any individual maintainer
> due to the political issues.

Well, turning the back-end into a library doesn't legally change anything.
At least the way we have traditionally interpreted the GPL, a front-end
that uses a shared library version of the gcc backend is still covered by
the GPL.

What it may change is that people may more easily *unintentionally*
violate the GPL, because they don't understand the license.  They may
more plausibly claim innocent misunderstandling, especially if the gcc
backend library is installed in the normal library search path  (/lib,
/usr/lib, or /usr/local/lib).  So we should definitely not do that.
-- 
	--Per Bothner
per@bothner.com   http://www.bothner.com/~per/