Re: multi-arch dvd, build-depends and the GPL
Hi Peter,
On Thu, Dec 04, 2008 at 03:21:25AM +0000, peter green wrote:
> The initial announcement of the mulit-arch DVD [1] said
> "
> There is also a combined amd64/i386/powerpc/source DVD which should
> contain most of what people will commonly want to install on each of
> those 3 arches, roughly equivalent to the contents of the first 3-4
> CDs or so each. Binary-all package overlaps mean that there is space
> on this disc for more packages than might be expected. Plus, sources
> for all the binaries on the DVD will be included too. This DVD is
> therefore probably the ideal choice of disc to sell or give away at
> Expos."
>
> I read this as saying "source is included so if you hand this DVD out
> you should be covered for your GPL obligations"
>
> Unfortunately while source packages are included build dependencies are
> not. Some of those build-dependencies can probablly be recreated from
> source on the DVD but others won't be able to (for example devmapper
> build-depends on automake which is not included on the DVD and is built
> from source package automake1.10 which is also not included on the DVD )
>
> IMO if the DVD is not providing build-deps then it is almost certainly
> not providing source for some of the included packages in the gpl sense.
That may be your opinion, but I have to disagree. Trying to require
build-deps in that way makes the problem *impossible* to solve. We're
not trying to solve the bootstrapping problem here, we're simply
providing sources. Are you going to demand that all the compilers are
on the DVD too? From the GPL:
"The source code for a work means the preferred form of the work for
making modifications to it. For an executable work, complete source
code means all the source code for all modules it contains, plus any
associated interface definition files, plus the scripts used to
control compilation and installation of the executable."
We're doing that already.
--
Steve McIntyre, Cambridge, UK. steve@einval.com
"I suspect most samba developers are already technically insane... Of
course, since many of them are Australians, you can't tell." -- Linus Torvalds
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