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Date: Thu, 23 Feb 2006 10:18:51 -0500 (EST)
From: Igor Peshansky <pechtcha AT cs DOT nyu DOT edu>
Reply-To: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
To: Dave Bryan <dave DOT bryan AT gmail DOT com>
cc: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
Subject: Re: Distributing Cygwin DLLs with my app
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On Thu, 23 Feb 2006, Dave Bryan wrote:

> I have an application for Windows written in VC++ which spawns the GNU
> tools GCC, LD, etc. As the GNU programs use the Cygwin DLLs I need those
> also. Is is possible to distribute just the needed Cygwin DLLs with my
> app + GNU tools rather than the complete Cygwin installation ? There
> would be no cost to customers for Cygwin & GCC, just my VC++ app

IANAL (<http://cygwin.com/acronyms/#YANALATEYHSMBSI>), but as far as I
understand, the GPL does allow such distribution, as long as you are also
distributing sources for the GPL'd tools.  For further licensing
questions, please use the cygwin-licensing list.

However, it's good that you asked here, because another point of concern
with such distributions is to make sure you don't become a
<http://cygwin.com/acronyms/#3PP> by not playing nicely with the existing
Cygwin installations.  As long as your distribution/installer detects an
existing installation and uses its DLLs and tools instead of the ones you
provide (or asks for an upgrade if the tools are too old), you should be
ok.

It would also be nice if you explicitly stated in the documentation that
you use Cygwin under the covers as part of your toolchain, so that
installing Cygwin later will not produce unpleasant surprises.  The best
way of doing this is to install into a standard location rather than the
location of your program (e.g., test for an existing installation, and if
it's not there, install the minimal set of packages in c:\cygwin,
preferably using Cygwin's installer or something with equal
functionality).  That way, if the users later decide to install Cygwin,
your minimal installation will be detected and upgraded.

You can even present this as a choice for the users (like some products do
with things like Acrobat Reader or DirectX) -- if Cygwin is not detected,
offer to install it, and spawn Cygwin setup for doing the minimal install
from your distribution CD.  Fortunately, Cygwin is easy to detect.

HTH,
	Igor
-- 
				http://cs.nyu.edu/~pechtcha/
      |\      _,,,---,,_	    pechtcha AT cs DOT nyu DOT edu | igor AT watson DOT ibm DOT com
ZZZzz /,`.-'`'    -.  ;-;;,_		Igor Peshansky, Ph.D. (name changed!)
     |,4-  ) )-,_. ,\ (  `'-'		old name: Igor Pechtchanski
    '---''(_/--'  `-'\_) fL	a.k.a JaguaR-R-R-r-r-r-.-.-.  Meow!

"Las! je suis sot... -Mais non, tu ne l'es pas, puisque tu t'en rends compte."
"But no -- you are no fool; you call yourself a fool, there's proof enough in
that!" -- Rostand, "Cyrano de Bergerac"

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