[Qemu-devel] Re: QEMU license problem (was [PATCH v3] Drop --whole-archive and static libraries)

[Andreas Färber]

Am 07.03.2010 um 17:47 schrieb Juan Quintela:

> Stefan Weil <address@hidden> wrote:
> > Removing libqemu.a was technically ok, but throws a license problem:
> >
> > "In particular, the QEMU virtual CPU core library (libqemu.a) is
> > released under the GNU Lesser General Public License."
> >
> > Without libqemu.a, this part of QEMU's license no longer works.
> >
> > I think the best solution would be to add a rule for libqemu.a
> > which allows users to build this static library (make libqemu.a).
> >
> > libqemu.a is also still needed for tests/qruncom.
>
> I noticed it also.  Not sure how to go here.  Create libqemu.a even if
> it is not used?
>
>
> From LICENSE:
>  In particular, the QEMU virtual CPU core library (libqemu.a) is
>  released under the GNU Lesser General Public License.

We've had a handful of people inquire about LGPL licensing on this  
list, getting no answer: They complained that libqemu.a contained  
GPL'ed code and none of you cared, so that would seem a moot point and  
we should rather fix the licensing passage.

If libqemu.a is still used somewhere in the Makefiles, then obviously  
we have to fix it. Sorry if I missed something there.

Not sure how to go about re-providing a library either, we could  
theoretically add a target using our new infrastructure and leave our  
own executables as they are now, but that would re-introduce the  
original problems for any user with an incompatible tool chain, not to  
mention that someone would need to test such a library target.

Andreas