Re: Question regarding usage of GPERF output in proprietary software

[Bruno Haible]

Hello,

Here's my take as past developer of GNU gperf. <address@hidden> may want
to give a definitive statement.

Ingrassia Mike-W30406 wrote:
> We are currently using the GPERF tool to generate a hash function for
> use in a piece of Motorola proprietary software.  Our legal department
> is requesting clarifications on the licensing terms of the output
> generated by the GPERF tool.  We are not using any source from the GPERF
> tool itself, and have no intentions on distributing GPERF with the final
> product.  Legal is concerned since the licensing terms provided in the
> GPERF documentation are not clear regarding the usage of the output
> generated by GPERF.

The general guideline for this question is: Does of output contain
significant portions of the source code of the tool? Only then is the
output considered as a "derivative work" of the tool.

In the case of gperf, the output contains only small pieces of a few lines,
such as:

  #ifdef __GNUC__
  __inline
  #else
  #ifdef __cplusplus
  inline
  #endif
  #endif

These pieces are too small for being significant.

Therefore the conclusion is that GPERF's output is not a derivative work
of GPERF, and therefore can be used without restrictions.

> Does the FSF specifically allow unrestricted use of the GPERF output?

The FSF put GPERF under the GPL, which doesn't have constraints on the use
of the output, only on the creation of derivative works, which is irrelevant
as discussed above.

Bruno