Re: make variable for GPL compliant builds

[Daniel Pocock]

On 03/09/12 14:09, Eric Blake wrote:
> On 09/02/2012 03:30 PM, Daniel Pocock wrote:
>>
>> I have a couple of projects that include some non-GPL friendly code
> 
> Such as?

My Asterisk G.729 module is a good example.  G.729 and SILK are both
patented algorithms and they are becoming more common in VoIP applications.

I want to make it convenient for people to build such projects for local
testing, but with a convenient way to exclude such things when building
for re-distribution.

>>
>> However, such code is optional and can be disabled
>>
>> I would like to give people a way to set some variable that excludes all
>> the non-GPL stuff, so they can build a re-distributable binary, e.g.
>>
>>    make GPL_FREE_BINARIES=1 all
> 
> That name sounds like you are building a project free from any GPL
> modules; a better name might be GPL_ONLY_BINARIES.

Yes, I realise it is confusing, I had meant FREE to imply freedom to
re-distribute rather than freedom from GPL constraints.

>>
>> Is there any standard name for such a variable, or has this been
>> contemplated?
> 
> No, and no.  And such a name would have to be provided by the packages
> in question, because it does not sound like it is common enough to be
> worth doing in autoconf.

The reason I ask about a generic name is for the benefit of build
systems.  For example, I contribute to OpenCSW (Solaris packaging),
F-Droid (builds Android packages) and Debian.  It would be handy to have
some variable that can be set by the build system for all packages.

In fact, it wouldn't even need to be GPL-specific, it could just be
UNENCUMBERED_BINARY_FOR_DISTRIBUTION=1 or something less verbose but
with the same meaning.