Re: what kind of license is libstd++ ? (and libgcc_s)?

[mike stump <mrs at windriver dot com>]

> Date: Wed, 20 Jun 2001 09:56:05 -0700
> From: Neelakanth <neelakanth@gnu.org>
> To: gcc@gcc.gnu.org

> can anybody tell me under what licenses are the above two libraries
> released? a look at files under gcc-3.0/libstdc++-v3/src shows most
> of them to be GPL.

The intent is to be GPL with the libgcc exception clause.  Read each
file you may be interested in, and let us know if it isn't so covered.
I suspect they all are.

The exception clause for libgcc is currently worded as:

In addition to the permissions in the GNU General Public License, the
Free Software Foundation gives you unlimited permission to link the
compiled version of this file into combinations with other programs,
and to distribute those combinations without any restriction coming
from the use of this file.  (The General Public License restrictions
do apply in other respects; for example, they cover modification of
the file, and distribution when not linked into a combine
executable.)

and the one for the C++ library reads as:

// As a special exception, you may use this file as part of a free software
// library without restriction.  Specifically, if other files instantiate
// templates or use macros or inline functions from this file, or you compile
// this file and link it with other files to produce an executable, this
// file does not by itself cause the resulting executable to be covered by
// the GNU General Public License.  This exception does not however
// invalidate any other reasons why the executable file might be covered by
// the GNU General Public License.

They were designed to be commercial software friendly.

> Since almost every c++ program now links with libstdc++ (which has a
> dependency on libgcc_s), does this mean that I cannot distribute
> commercial software built with g++?

No, it doesn't mean this.