update the note in README.win32 concerning Cygwin licensing#1013
update the note in README.win32 concerning Cygwin licensing#1013oandrieu wants to merge 2 commits intoocaml:trunkfrom
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mention that the Cygwin DLL license switched from GPLv3 to LGPLv3 + static linking exception
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This looks great, thanks. I wonder if it would be worth turning the 'June 2016' into a hyperlink to the announcement (https://www.redhat.com/en/about/blog/cygwin-library-now-available-under-gnu-lesser-general-public-license)? Also, as checking the version of the Cygwin DLL is slightly counterintuitive (being independent of the setup program version, etc), might it also be a worth a sentence with the required uname command to determine the version? |
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As an aside to any licence experts (@avsm?) - if you compile against 2.5.2 and run with 2.5.0, which licence are you (and vice versa)? |
You are bound by the license of the current action. The compiling clauses apply from the 2.5.2 license, and the binary linking and distribution clauses apply to the 2.5.0 run action. |
meh, I'm not too confident on the persistence of this kind of blog URL. |
README.win32.adoc
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| (*):: Cygwin-generated `.exe` files are linked with the Cygwin DLL. Since | ||
| version 2.5.2 released in June 2016, this DLL is licensed under the LGPLv3 with | ||
| a static linking exception; prior versions of the DLL are distributed under the | ||
| GPL. Thus, these `.exe` files can only be distributed under compatible license. |
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You should clarify that the "can only be distributed" sentence only concerns the older version case.
| (*):: Cygwin-generated `.exe` files are linked with the Cygwin DLL. Since | ||
| version 2.5.2 released in June 2016, this DLL is licensed under the LGPLv3 with | ||
| a static linking exception; prior versions of the DLL are distributed under the | ||
| GPL (the cygwin version can be obtained with the `uname -r` command). Thus, |
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You should clarify that the "can only be distributed" sentence only concerns the older version case.
| a static linking exception; prior versions of the DLL are distributed under the | ||
| GPL. Thus, these `.exe` files can only be distributed under compatible license. | ||
| GPL (the cygwin version can be obtained with the `uname -r` command). Thus, | ||
| these `.exe` files can only be distributed under a compatible license. |
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(I wrote it before but the comment got lost as the diff changed:) I think it would be important to underline that "can only be distributed" only applies to users of versions of cygwin strictly older than 2.5.2.
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@avsm So if I understand correctly, you must compile against 2.5.2 or later to distribute LGPL (or any licence via the linking exception) and then obviously you, and anyone else, can't distribute LGPL with a 2.5.1 DLL or earlier because that would violate the distribution clause of the DLL? I'm guessing that if you compile with 2.5.1 or earlier you must be GPL no matter what because of the import libraries (which are GPL)?
In which case, how about a wholesale re-word:
(*):: Executables generated by the native GCC package in Cygwin are linked with
the Cygwin DLL and require this to be distributed with your programs.
Executables generated by Microsoft Visual C++ or the Mingw-w64 compilers (even
when run in Cygwin as `i686-w64-mingw32-gcc` or `x86_64-w64-mingw32-gcc`) are
not linked against this DLL. Prior to Cygwin 2.5.2 (the Cygwin version can be
obtained with `uname -r`) the Cygwin DLL is distributed under the GPL, requiring
any programs linked with it to be distributed under a compatible licence. Since
version 2.5.2, the Cygwin DLL is distributed under the LGPLv3 with a static
linking exception meaning that, like executables generated by Microsoft Visual
C++ or the Mingw-w64 compilers, generated executables may be distributed under
terms of your choosing.
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Alternatively, we could avoid being too specific (IANAL and all that), and simply state that distributing the produced .exe must be done in a way that is compliant with the Cygwin DLL license and leave it at that. That was my intent in leaving the sentence as is, but @gasche is right, the wording doesn't quite say that.
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I agree with @oandrieu that we shouldn't be too specific here, and let the reader decide if they are compliant or not. Perhaps just recommending Cygwin 2.5.2 or higher is sufficient for this regard and let users compile against earlier versions at their risk.
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How does this look, therefore (it reads oddly if you try to remove the reference to the GPL completely):
(*):: Executables generated by the native GCC package in Cygwin are linked with
the Cygwin DLL and require this to be distributed with your programs. Cygwin 2.5.2
or higher is recommended (the Cygwin version can be obtained with `uname -r`) -
as earlier versions are licensed under the GPL and thus require compiled executables
to be redistributed under a compatible licence. Executables generated by Microsoft
Visual C++ or the Mingw-w64 compilers (even when run in Cygwin as `i686-w64-mingw32-gcc`
or `x86_64-w64-mingw32-gcc`) are not linked against this DLL.
The original sentence I think predates the introduction of the Mingw ports, and I do think it's worth the clarification that the mingw compilers (which are officially supposed to be the Cygwin-packaged ones) are not affected, even if you happen to be using Cygwin < 2.5.2
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Sorry for the endless nitpicking, but I (personally) actually prefer the first version of @dra. I find that giving the actual license is much more precise that saying "this version is recommended", which helps people do their own lawyering if they have to, and I think that "may be distributed" is nuanced enough as a formulation to let people know that, if they are picky about this stuff, they may need to check more in depth.
b11eea1 flambda-backend: Introduce Import_info (ocaml#1036) bc5b135 flambda-backend: Fix `ocamlobjinfo` on flambda2 .cmx files (ocaml#1029) c8babbd flambda-backend: Compilation_unit optimisations (ocaml#1035) e8d3e22 flambda-backend: Use 4.14.0 opam switch for building (includes upgrading ocamlformat to 0.24.1) (ocaml#1030) eb14a86 flambda-backend: Port PR81 from ocaml-jst (ocaml#1024) 131bc12 flambda-backend: Merge ocaml-jst 2022-12-13 (ocaml#1022) 06c189a flambda-backend: Make stack allocation the default (ocaml#1013) 98debd5 flambda-backend: Initial support for value slots not of value kind (ocaml#946) deb1714 flambda-backend: Add is_last flag to closinfo words (ocaml#938) d07fce1 flambda-backend: Disable poll insertion in Configure (ocaml#967) 0f1ce0e flambda-backend: Regenerate ocaml/configure autoconf 2.69 (instead of 2.71) (ocaml#1012) 27132d8 flambda-backend: Fix for spurious typing error related to expanding through functor arguments (ocaml#997) 724fb68 flambda-backend: Use `Compilation_unit.t` instead of `Ident.t` for globals (ocaml#871) 396d5b8 flambda-backend: Add a test for frametable setup in natdynlinked libraries (ocaml#983) b73ab12 flambda-backend: Fix invocation of `caml_shared_startup` in native dynlink (ocaml#980) 7c7d75a flambda-backend: Fix split_default_wrapper which did not trigger anymore with flambda2 (ocaml#970) 8fb75bd flambda-backend: Port ocaml#11727 and ocaml#11732 (ocaml#965) fdb7987 flambda-backend: Fix include functor issue after 4.14 merge. (ocaml#948) 9745cdb flambda-backend: Print -dprofile/-dtimings output to stdout like 4.12 (ocaml#943) 5f51f21 flambda-backend: Merge pull request ocaml#932 from mshinwell/4.14-upgrade 841687d flambda-backend: Run make alldepend in ocaml/ (ocaml#936) 72a7658 flambda-backend: Remove reformatting changes only in dynlink/dune (preserving PR889 and adjusting to minimise diff) 6d758cd flambda-backend: Revert whitespace changes in dune files, to match upstream c86bf6e flambda-backend: Remove duplicate tests for polling 971dbeb flambda-backend: Testsuite fixes 32f8356 flambda-backend: Topeval fix for symbols patch befea01 flambda-backend: Compilation fixes / rectify merge faults a84543f flambda-backend: Merge ocaml-jst 8e65056 flambda-backend: Merge ocaml-jst 4d70045 flambda-backend: Remove filename from system frametable (amd64) (ocaml#920) 5e57b7d flambda-backend: Bugfix for runtime frame_descr logic for C frames (ocaml#918) 6423d5e flambda-backend: Merge pull request ocaml#914 from mshinwell/merge-ocaml-jst-2022-10-24 ead605c flambda-backend: Add a missing Extract_exception (ocaml#916) c8f1481 flambda-backend: Resolve conflicts and add specialise/specialised attributes to Builtin_attributes cf4d0d3 flambda-backend: Merge fixes (ocaml#21) c2f742f flambda-backend: Re-enable some tests for Flambda2 (ocaml#881) 3d38d13 flambda-backend: Long frames in frametable (ocaml#797) 85aec7b flambda-backend: Add loop attribute to Builtin_attributes c0f16e3 flambda-backend: Compilation fixes 90dea23 flambda-backend: Merge flambda-backend/main 5acc6ea flambda-backend: Fixes after merge e501946 flambda-backend: Merge ocaml-jst 115083b flambda-backend: Merge ocaml-jst 9943b2e flambda-backend: Revert "Revert "Transform tail-recursive functions into recursive continuations (ocaml#893)"" (ocaml#909) ce339f1 flambda-backend: Fix alloc modes and call kinds for overapplications (ocaml#902) e6a317c flambda-backend: Revert "Transform tail-recursive functions into recursive continuations (ocaml#893)" 853c488 flambda-backend: Transform tail-recursive functions into recursive continuations (ocaml#893) 5a977e4 flambda-backend: Fix missing End_region primitives on switch arms (ocaml#898) 7fa7f9d flambda-backend: Add missing dependencies to Dune files (ocaml#889) 3cd36f0 flambda-backend: Have Lambda `Pgetglobal` and `Psetglobal` take `Compilation_unit.t` (ocaml#896) 7565915 flambda-backend: [@poll error] attribute (ocaml#745) 9eb9448 flambda-backend: Backport the main safepoints PRs (ocaml#740) 689bdda flambda-backend: Add strict mode for ocamldep (ocaml#892) git-subtree-dir: ocaml git-subtree-split: b11eea1
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mention that the Cygwin DLL license switched from GPLv3 to LGPLv3 + static linking exception