At 2002-09-15 22:48, Manuel M T Chakravarty wrote:

...

Well, it depends on whether this code makes use of the readline functionality or not. If, say, you are just using GetOpt from "util", there is no need for you to make your program GPL, only because Readline happens to be in the same package.

It's not a problem with the new hierarchy, but formerly if I used "package util" then I'd have to link in libreadline, and then I would be subject to the terms of its license.

Or would the linker not include any libreadline code in that case?

Readline is now in a package on its own in the HEAD. i.e. our next major release will contain a completely separate readline package. The license status of the readline package itself is not clear; certainly if you statically link to readline your program is only distributable under the GPL. However, if you dynamically link against readline, then you could conceivably follow the Linux kernel attitude and not GPL your code (although some at the FSF disagree with this interpretation of the GPL). Currently, if you use package util but don't import Readline, you are not affected by the GPL. None of the libraries we distribute indirectly depends on Readline. Cheers, Simon