Re: FW: A question about GCC license

[Ian Lance Taylor <iant at google dot com>]

"Shlomy Marom" <shlomym@Cyber-Ark.com> writes:

> So here is my question to you:
> I'm working on AIX 5.3.
> Since our application needs to deal with exceptions (throw & catch), the
> only way we could make it work is by using shared libstdc++ (otherwise
> the exception couldn't be caught)
> Since we use shared-lib, we need the following files for out application
> to function correctly:
> - libstdc++.a
> - libgcc_s_pthread.a
> Is there any legal way to distribute these libs, without being forced to
> open our source? (I don't want to enforce my customers for fetching
> these libs...)

Those libraries are not under the straight GPL.  They are under the
GPL plus exception.

The libgcc exception is:

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.)

The libstdc++-v3 exception is:

// 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.

So you are permitted to distribute an executable linked against those
libraries without distributing source code for the executable itself.

Ian