Re: GNU config (config.sub/guess) is now GPLv3 with additional permission

[Goswin von Brederlow <goswin-v-b@web.de>]

On Fri, May 31, 2013 at 03:08:59PM -0700, Josh Triplett wrote:
> On Fri, May 31, 2013 at 06:44:00PM -0300, Henrique de Moraes Holschuh wrote:
> > Upstream has changed the license to GPLv3.  It has an additional
> > permission to negate any "viral effects", but it only applies to
> > packages that include a configuration script generated by GNU
> > autoconf.
> [...]
> > Here is the new license text for config.sub and config.guess:
> [...]
> >    As a special exception to the GNU General Public License, if you
> >    distribute this file as part of a program that contains a
> >    configuration script generated by Autoconf, you may include it under
> >    the same distribution terms that you use for the rest of that
> >    program.  This Exception is an additional permission under section 7
> >    of the GNU General Public License, version 3 ("GPLv3").
> 
> Interesting choice of wording.  Read literally ("generated by
> Autoconf"), this would mean that the exception only applies when you
> distribute config.guess or config.sub as part of a source distribution
> that includes the generated configure, not just the input configure.ac.
> Which should be the case for most source distributions, but it still
> seems interesting.
> 
> And on the flip side, you could also trivially satisfy this by including
> a generated configure script that doesn't actually get used.
> 
> In any case, this seems like something we could easily scan for with
> lintian or with any of the automatic whole-archive source scanning
> tools: just look for a source package that contains config.sub or
> config.guess but does *not* contain a configure script (or whose
> configure script does not contain "Generated by GNU Autoconf" in its
> first few lines).
> 
> - Josh Triplett

When the source does not come with a configure script, which usualy
means debain/rules then runs autoreconf or the like, doesn't it make
sense to also rely on autotools-dev and NOT ship the config.sub/geuss
at all? The choice to ship one but not the other seems to me to be a
bit stupid. Esspecially since config.sub/guess are much easier
replacable.

So yes, please do scan for this. Seems worthwile even without the
legal mubo jumbo.

MfG
	Goswin