Mail Archives: cygwin/2005/06/22/13:18:54
> ----Original Message----
>
>>From: Brian Dessent
>>Sent: 22 June 2005 16:36
>
>
>>Patrick Rotsaert wrote:
>>
>>
>>>I need to build a DLL in cygwin (I use a lot of POSIX functions), that I
>>>can use in MSVC and Borland CBuilder apps.
>>
>>http://cygwin.com/faq/faq.html#TOC102
>
>
>
>>And, as far as I know, using cygwin1.dll in this way means all your code
>>must be released under the GPL, or another OSI approved license.
>
>
> Absolutely so, and I think the FAQ entry needs a little revising, because
> I think point 5. in the list of items is misleadingly
> not-strongly-emphatic-enough:
>
> " Download crt0.c from the cygwin website and include it in your sources.
> Modify it to call my_crt0() instead of cygwin_crt0(). Since you are using
> Cygwin source code, your resulting program will be licensed under the GNU
> GPL. For more information, see http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html. "
>
> To my ears, this sounds like it's saying that your program is GPL'd *only*
> because you've downloaded, modified and included crt0.c in your source. But
> regardless of that fact, and even if you write your own crt0.c entirely from
> scratch, you are obliged to GPL your program *anyway*, because as long as
> you're LoadLibrarying the cygwin dll and calling functions from it, your
> program counts as being 'linked' to the dll - the GPL doesn't discriminate
> between compile-time static linking and run-time dynamic linking. So I
> would remove this detail from point 5 in the list (it's a little
> out-of-place there anyway) and add it as an extra para at the end of the
> item, so we'd have just
>
> " Download crt0.c from the cygwin website and include it in your sources.
> Modify it to call my_crt0() instead of cygwin_crt0(). "
>
> for point 5, and then something like
>
> " Note that if you are using any other Cygwin-based libraries that you will
> probably need to build them as DLLs using gcc and then generate import
> libraries for the MS VC linker.
>
> Note also that Cygwin is GPL'd software (as indeed are all other
> Cygwin-based libraries). That means that if your code links against the
> cygwin dll (and if your program is calling functions from Cygwin, it must,
> as a matter of fact, be linked against it), you must apply the GPL to your
> source as well. Of course, this only matters if you plan to distribute your
> program in binary form. For more information, see
> http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html. "
>
>
> cheers,
> DaveK
No problem that my dll will fall under the GPL.
Just out of curiosity, does this also apply for applications that use my
DLL?
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