Licensquestions on GNU Software.

[Nathan Sidwell]

Alexandre Oliva wrote:
> On Jun 24, 2003, Nathan Sidwell <nathan@codesourcery.com> wrote:

>>>I am using free tools under GPL to compilate and link
>>>a proprietary software.

>>That is fine.
> 
> 
> Not that fast.  Even though GCC doesn't propagate freedom to programs
> it compiles, not even by means of libgcc and its other run-time
> libraries, because of the run-time exception to their licenses, the
> Cygwin run-time library has no such run-time exception, i.e., it's
> strictly GPL, and therefore any executable linked with the Cygwin
> library could be considered a derived work, and therefore be subject
> to the rules imposed by the GNU GPL on derived works, namely, being
> covered by the GNU GPL as well.  The copyright holders of Cygwin may
> license it to you under different licenses, though.

thanks for the clarification. [I did say I was unfamiliar with
the cygwin license, and being weasely I could claim that a library is
not a tool for compiling and linking, but a piece of data being linked :)]

summary:GCC and binutils (assembler, linker, etcc) fit your needs, cygwin
needs checking carefully.

nathan


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Nathan Sidwell    ::   http://www.codesourcery.com   ::     CodeSourcery LLC
          The voices in my head said this was stupid too
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