Attn: cygport, openssh, and exim/cron maintainers [Was: [ANNOUNCEMENT] Updated: csih-0.1.3-1]

Charles Wilson cygwin@cwilson.fastmail.fm
Tue Apr 8 02:26:00 GMT 2008


I'm trying to be explicit about licensing in csih for the next release. 
I realize it's a little silly to use the GPL on a script (binary == 
source, right?), but it may be necessary because part of it is derived 
from cygport, which is GPLv3.

csih (the script part) has been derived from a number of sources:

#   ssh-host-config Copyright 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 Red Hat Inc.
#     part of the Cygwin port of OpenSSH
(no explicit licensing)

#   cygport         Copyright (C) 2006, 2007 Yaakov Selkowitz
#     GPL v3
(mostly the messaging functions: csih_inform, csih_error, etc)

#   exim-config     Copyright Pierre A. Humblet, 2003-2007.
#   cron-config     Copyright Pierre A. Humblet, 2003-2007.
(no explicit licensing)

For the csih.sh function library, I'd like to use one of the following 
two licenses:

(1) MIT/X

or

(2) GPLv3 with an exception clause modeled after the javascript example 
from http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#WMS. See below.

In both cases, I need permission from the maintainers of the four 
packages above. With respect to csih.sh, I'd prefer MIT/X because (a) 
source == binary, so forcing "make sure the source is available" seems a 
bit silly, and (b) just less hassle all around.

In either case, the intent is so that the various foo-config scripts 
don't have to be as concerned about their own license terms, as long as 
they are just using csih.  Of course, if you copy the code for 
csih_foo() so that you can make a modified version of that function, 
then the full terms -- GPLv3 "viralness and all" if option #2, or no 
real impact if option #1 -- apply.


========= snip (option #2) ==========
This file, cygwin-service-installation-helper.sh, is part of csih. csih 
has several components which are distributed under various licenses.

cygwin-service-installation-helper.sh is free software: you can 
redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General 
Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either 
version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

cygwin-service-installation-helper.sh is distributed in the hope that it 
will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied 
warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See 
the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along 
with csih.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.

As a special exception to GPL, any shell script or executable that 
merely makes function calls to this code, and for that purpose includes 
it by reference shall be deemed a separate work for copyright law 
purposes. In addition, the copyright holders of this code give you 
permission to combine this code with free software libraries that are 
released under the GNU LGPL. You may copy and distribute such a system 
following the terms of the GNU GPL for this code and the LGPL for the 
libraries. If you modify this code, you may extend this exception to 
your version of the code, but you are not obligated to do so. If you do 
not wish to do so, delete this exception statement from your version.
========= snap ==========

Can I get a yes or no from the three maintainers of all four of the 
packages listed below, on the following questions:

openssh
cygport
exim, cron

Can I use the MIT/X license for the portions of 
cygwin-service-installation-helper.sh that were derived from the config 
script(s) under your control?

Can I use the GPLv3-with-exception license above for the portions of 
cygwin-service-installation-helper.sh that were derived from the config 
script(s) under your control?

If both, which do you prefer?

--
Chuck

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