Re: gawk: is the manpage free to use ?

[Aharon Robbins]

Greetings.  Concerning this:

> From: Jaromír Dolecek <address@hidden>
> Subject: gawk: is the manpage free to use ?
> To: address@hidden
>
> Hi,
> I'm currently rewriting nawk manpage. Since gawk manpage is really
> good, it would help me a lot if I could copy relevant portions,
> instead of creating virtually identical stuff on my own.
>
> Can I do that without bringing GPL to the manpage I modify ? Would the
> manpage containing gawk documentation bits need to be covered by
> GPL ?
>
> Jaromir
> -- 
> Jaromir Dolecek <address@hidden>      http://www.ics.muni.cz/~dolecek/
> @@@@  Wanna a real operating system ? Go and get NetBSD, dammit!  @@@@

First, make sure you're using the gawk 3.0.6 distribution.

Secondly, the gawk.1 in that dist has its copying permissions stated explicitly
at the end; the permissions allow modification of the man page given that the
copying permissions are retained.

For a final statement, you should check with Richard Stallman at the FSF.  
However,
I believe it is OK to modify the gawk man page to reflect nawk and then 
distribute
it under the same terms.  Copying portions verbatim into a different man page
sounds more problematic to me.

Good luck,

Arnold