[patch,build] Build libgfortran and libgomp as DLL on win32

[Danny Smith]

 Brian Dessent
 Thursday, 30 August 2007 12:33 a.m.
> libgfortran and all the other target libraries have the 
> exception clause
> which is specificically there to prevent this situation:
> 
> > 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.)
> 
> Just using a GPL toolchain should not affect the license of 
> binaries it
> creates.  Now I guess the question is whether this term "combinations
> with other programs" means statically linking or creating a shared
> library that is distributed alongside the app, but I'm pretty sure the
> intention of the wording was always that simply building an 
> app with gcc
> (and thus linking to gcc runtimes) doesn't impose any license
> requirements on that code.  Otherwise, it would be impossible to build
> any non-GPL programs with gcc since everything links to at 
> least libgcc.


Thats not what I suggested.  If I distribute a static libgfortran.a
binary to other people, I am required to provide the source for that
library.  Correct?  The library is not a "combined executable"	

Now, if  build libgfortran.dll from the same source and distribute it, I
would expect that the obligation to provide the source for libgfortan
still remains.  It is not a combined executable.  (Oh I suppose we could
be tricky and and say because we've added a DllMain to the library it
technically is a combined executable, but I don't buy that) If I don't
need to distribute libgfortran.dll (the user got it from mingw.org or
some other package), then, as per the exception, just linking against
the dll does not add a GPL obligation.

Anyway, until I am informed otherwise by the copyright holder, that is
what I go by

Danny