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Re: GFDL/GPL issues
- From: Mark Mitchell <mark at codesourcery dot com>
- To: Matthias Klose <doko at debian dot org>
- Cc: GCC <gcc at gcc dot gnu dot org>, "Benj. Mako Hill" <mako at debian dot org>
- Date: Wed, 26 May 2010 14:42:08 -0700
- Subject: Re: GFDL/GPL issues
- References: <4BFC6EF0.4090908@codesourcery.com> <4BFD8D2E.8000500@debian.org>
Matthias Klose wrote:
> there is another issue with the manual pages.
> It would be nice to know if the files used to generate the manual
> pages (gcc/doc/invoke.texi, gcc/fortran/gfortran.texi,
> gcc/java/gcj.texi) could be dual-licensed as well, so that is possible
> to provide basic documentation in Debian as well.
I could ask that question, but I don't know how to do so in a way that
is likely to get the desired answer. The FSF considers the GFDL
meritorious, and, as far as I can tell, doesn't care whether that
inconveniences Debian. So, I don't know how to make the argument that
this change helps the FSF.
I've argued that allowing GFDL documentation to be extracted from GPL'd
code, and allowing the current GFDL text in the manuals to be placed
into comments in GPL'd code, is a win in that it reduces developer
effort and improves the quality of the product -- but I can't argue that
this is true for the manual pages.
But, if we could get the documentation for command-line options into
GPL'd code in a structured way, then I think you could probably generate
GPL'd manual pages from that.
--
Mark Mitchell
CodeSourcery
mark@codesourcery.com
(650) 331-3385 x713