Re: GNAT GPL 2005: Too clever by half?

[Ludovic Brenta <ludovic@ludovic-brenta.org>]

Michael Bode <m.g.bode@web.de> writes:
> Georg Bauhaus <bauhaus@futureapps.de> writes:
>
>>> If you are a One-Man-Show(*)
>>> closed-source developer, go away, use ObjectAda or forget about Ada
>>> altogether."
>>
>> Or use FSF's GNAT.
>
> I've just browsed through
> http://gcc.gnu.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb.cgi/gcc/gcc/. Is there a file
> stating that libgnat is GMGPL or does one have to check every source
> file if it is part of libgnat and has the exception to the GPL? Is
> that what AdaCore means by:
>
>   There are other places where you can obtain partial versions of
>   GNAT, typically consisting of the compiler. For instance the GNAT
>   compiler can be obtained in source form from the Free Software
>   Foundation (FSF). Other versions of the GNAT compiler exist (e.g. in
>   GNU Linux distributions). AdaCore has no control over these and
>   cannot guarantee their quality or suitability for a particular
>   purpose. Most important you should ascertain the license and IPR
>   (Intellectual Property Rights) guarantees from its provider.
>
> I mean, I want to develop applications, not analyse compilers.

You have to look at every source file, because every source file is
licensed individually.  You can start with

$ grep -rL "As a special exception" gcc/gcc/ada

but this will list the many files that make up the compiler itself.
There is a plan to move the files that make up libgnat to gcc/libada,
but this plan has not been executed yet.  When this is done, things
will be much more simple.

Like most people, you probably won't have to analyse the compiler for
yourself though; you can look to distribution maintainers to do that
for you.

-- 
Ludovic Brenta.