[Date Prev][Date Next] [Thread Prev][Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]

Re: BTRFS and debian



	Hi.

On Sat, Jul 14, 2018 at 07:50:03PM +1000, Zenaan Harkness wrote:
> Can someone explain if there's an -actual- non-free dependency that
> these packages have, or if it is just the somewhat-incompatibility
> between ZFS CDDL and Linux GPL?

Unless they manage to pull in some Oracle code (zfs encryption and
dtrace probes come to mind), ZFS on Linux is a free (as in freedom)
software.
But, since Sun Microsystems deliberately designed CDDL to be
incompatible with GPL2 (happened in 2004 IIRC), you can not ship ZFS
binary modules with the Linux kernel, for instance ([1]).
What you can do is to ship source code, and 'ask' the user to build such
modules for themselves (hence the need of dkms or module-assistant).

[1] https://github.com/zfsonlinux/zfs/wiki/FAQ


Reply to: