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Re: [PROPOSAL] Full text of GPL must be included



On 2 Dec 2000, Thomas Bushnell, BSG wrote:

> John Galt <galt@inconnu.isu.edu> writes:
> 
> > pkg_add -r gcc on a freebsd box will pull down a binary of gcc without a
> > copy of the GPL.
> 
> Perhaps I'm confused, but I thought the normal procedure was the
> "ports" mechanism, which pulls down source and compiles it locally.
> If it's actually more like the way Debian or Red Hat do it, then
> certainly the same issue applies there.

A good portion of ports are built into binary packages.  The ports are the
preferred method for adding to FreeBSD, but binary packages exist: can you
imagine the fun of compiling XFree86 4.0.1 from scratch on a '486?  I
don't have to imagine it, I dealt with it for a week.  Soon after that is
when I had the crash course in the binary packages.
 
> However, it's the case that RMS is mostly ignorant of how things like
> big OS distributions are structured; you shouldn't assume that he's
> been aware of things all along and woke up in late November and
> decided to mail Wichert.  I think it probably first came to his
> attention last month with respect to Debian (because that's what the
> FSF uses itself of course) and he doesn't know that the same thing
> applies in other systems.
> 
> Feel free to tell him; you probably know those details more than I do.
>
> Thomas
> 

-- 
CCI Power 6/40: one board, a megabyte of cache, and an attitude...

John Galt (galt@inconnu.isu.edu)



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