Hi Grzegorz Grzegorz Prokopski wrote:
Sure sounds a good idea to get it checked out, I know that it's a debatable topic on readline, particularly since it's in a shared library, and we don't redistribute readline with our binaries, since it's already included in linux.Hello! A friend of mine reminded me lately, that libreadline is GPL not LGPL library so it can only be used in GPL-compatible software. However AFAIK GPL is incompatible with MPL type licenses like IPL used by FireBird (http://firebird.sourceforge.net/index.php?op=doc&id=ipl ) I am Cc:ing debian-legal to be corrected if I am wrong somewhere.
Now - I've had a bit of a further read, and from what I've read, it's probably ok for me to build and to distribute my stuff, since I don't distribute readline as well, but apparently the debate seems to be if there is a conflict for debian to ship both readline and firebird together.
A legal opinion sounds good (Im glad there's someone to provide one).
I'd suggest using editline as a replacement, which is available under BSD-type license.About libeditline I can read: Description: Line editing library similar to readline This is a line-editing library. It can be linked into almost any program to provide command-line editing and recall. It is call-compatible with a subset of the FSF readline library, but it is a fraction of the size (and offers fewer features). This is the runtime library only. So I think it would be good to link that lib and use it's features and NOT to GNU libreadline. However it may be not 100% drop-in replacement.
a bit more about it, libeditline:This is a line-editing library. It can be linked into almost any program to provide command-line editing and recall. It is call-compatible with a subset of the FSF readline library, but it is a fraction of the size (and offers fewer features).
Basically I'm happy to swap to editline. Call compatible is all I need. Cheers & thanks. Mark