[Mageia-dev] License issues with readline (MariaDB)

Thu Dec 29 20:49:31 CET 2011

'Twas brillig, and Maarten Vanraes at 29/12/11 16:20 did gyre and gimble:
+> Op donderdag 29 december 2011 15:28:58 schreef Maarten Vanraes:
+> 
+> as suspected, MariaDB cannot license as GPLv2+
+> 
+> ok, so what do we do:
+> 
+> A) follow upstream, and use bundled GPLv2 readline to link static against
+> B) go back to readline-v5
+> C) repackage debian's version of readline-gplv2 (afaik its a v5 maintained)
+> D) ignore all this legal crap and just link shared with readline v6
+> E) try to use libedit, but the spec files contain buildConflicts with it, so i'm 
+> guessing it's for a good reason.
+> 
+> 
+> debian does B)
+> fedora does either A) or D), but definately static linked
+> 
+> 
+> tbh: even though it's not right, my preference goes to D)
+> 
+> my mariadb latest fix is just waiting to be pushed...
+> 
+> please, i need comments and opinions ASAP!
+
+I understand the desire to do D, but it really, really should not be
+done like that. If we cannot adhere to our own licenses, then how do we
+expect any traditionally non-foss people to do it? We have to lead by
+example.
+
+So personally I'd go with A and if/when another readline related GPLv3
+issue crops up in the future, then we switch over to C.
+
+Col
+
+
+-- 
+
+Colin Guthrie
+colin(at)mageia.org
+http://colin.guthr.ie/
+
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