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Re: Is that OK to borrow code from coreutils?
On Wed, Jul 09, 2008 at 07:17:58PM -0400, Mark Mielke wrote:
> Joe Buck wrote:
> >On Wed, Jul 09, 2008 at 04:26:43PM -0400, Jack Lloyd wrote:
> >
> >>On Wed, Jul 09, 2008 at 01:17:43PM -0700, Joe Buck wrote:
> >>
> >>Presumably one could just take the code from the last GPLv2 version of
> >>coreutils, as well... I can't imagine /bin/chmod sees a lot of churn.
> >>
> >
> >I think that even for that, approval is needed (though it should just
> >be a formality, it's not like RMS is going to say no).
> >
>
> I'd like to understand this reasoning. I thought the entire purpose of
> GPL was to allow other GPL projects to freely derive from the software,
> and to prevent non-GPL projects from deriving from this software,
> protecting the freedom of the software. In this case, GPLv2 => GPLv2. If
> RMS needs a formality request, then this is not in the spirit of the GPL
> at all, as the use is not free.
Anyone is free to combine GPL code, modify it, and distribute the result.
However, for that code to become part of the official GCC, there are
additional requirements as well as policies to comply with. So anyone is
*not* free to scribble on the official GCC source tree.
The GNU project is larger than just GCC, so when code is moved from one
piece to another, it raises questions like which side is the master copy,
avoiding "cut and paste" meaning that bugs on one side don't get missed on
the other side, etc.