Re: D Symbol Demangling

DJ Delorie
2006-04-25T14:13:25Z

> Perhaps DJ could help with advice: the DJGPP project's license is
> the GPL with an exception, so DJ probably already ``been there, done
> that''.

The rules are as follows:

The author of the new file may choose one or more licenses when it's
contributed. Ideally, the author would choose the GPL+exception, or
whatever is most desirable for where they're contributing it to.

To change the license *after* it's contributed, requires the FSF to
agree to the change (as they're now the de facto copyright holders).

The FSF prefers the GPL when possible, however, files which would be
parts of libraries which implement standards (such as libstdc++-v3)
really can't be just GPL because you wouldn't be able to use gcc to
compile a conforming program without that program being GPL'd.
Non-standard libraries are a different story, of course.

Note that the exception the FSF usually permits is not the
"independent module" one, but the "built with gcc" one. They are not
particularly interested in promoting other vendors' compilers. The
special exception noted in the "portage" snippet is really no
different than the LGPL, only it's even weaker. Even *I* wouldn't
recommend that one for FSF contributions, although it's very similar
to DJGPP's license.

Note: DJGPP's library license is: pre-built libraries I distribute are
free to use for proprietary applications, sources I distribute (and
thus rebuilt libraries) are strictly LGPL. We normally make
exceptions for re-built libraries where the patches are submitted back
to the DJGPP project; the goal is to never have a library out there
that you can't rebuild *somehow*.