Re: inclusion of header files lead to derived works
On Tue, Mar 23, 1999 at 12:01:55AM +0100, Henning Makholm wrote:
>
> With the exception of nontrivial macro definitions and inline
> functions (which do not appear in "mainstream" header files for C)
> what the header file contains is irrelevant, because it does not
> appear (neither verbatim NOR translated) in the binary.
Source code does seldom appear in a (stripped) binary, and still the
binary is derived from the source. Derivation is not limited to verbatim
copying.
> In fact, a header file is primarily used for typechecking, which is a
> task that is completed at compile time. There is no type information
> in object code.
This is all pretty well, but this is not an argument for either side.
Perhaps we should define the scope we talk about. I base my assumptions on a
GPL'ed work. The GPL says:
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.
This is my understanding of source code, and the derived complete work as a
whole.
Thanks,
Marcus
--
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