Re: [Qemu-devel] GPLv3 troubles (was: [PATCH 6/7] target-xtensa: add fsf core)

[Andreas Färber]

Am 15.10.2011 11:02, schrieb Blue Swirl:
> On Mon, Oct 10, 2011 at 2:26 AM, Max Filippov <address@hidden> wrote:
>> diff --git a/target-xtensa/core-fsf/gdb-config.c 
>> b/target-xtensa/core-fsf/gdb-config.c
>> new file mode 100644
>> index 0000000..6705d9c
>> --- /dev/null
>> +++ b/target-xtensa/core-fsf/gdb-config.c
>> @@ -0,0 +1,152 @@
>> +/* Configuration for the Xtensa architecture for GDB, the GNU debugger.
>> +
>> +   Copyright (C) 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
>> +
>> +   This file is part of GDB.
>> +
>> +   This program 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
> 
> Nack. GPLv3 is by design incompatible with GPLv2only (but not with
> GPLv2+ or IIRC BSD-like) licenses. Please only use code from GDB
> before v3 switch.
> 
> As a side note, a quick grep shows that GPLv2only is a small minority
> in QEMU. In theory it should be possible to agree to switch from
> GPLv2only to some GPLv3 compatible license for all of QEMU code, or in
> a theory with alternative universes, even get FSF to relicense GDB
> under GPLv2only compatible way. Or, with the aid of infinite number of
> monkeys of Internet waiting to waste their time, rewrite incompatible
> but interesting parts of GDB or QEMU under The One True License of the
> day.

Could we please draft some policy on this? This is not a GDB issue, it's
very general. Whether we like it or not, there is GPLv3-licensed code
and there will probably be a GPLv4 one day.

IMO having old GPLv2-only code is one thing. But there's a lot of new
GPLv2-only code cooking and occasionally pouring in, especially from
qemu-kvm. Device assignment is a current example I encountered.

If we could make checkpatch.pl detect new GPLv2-only code, then I would
hope, given the dynamic QEMU development of the last few years, that the
GPLv2-only portions become so small (both in relation and absolute) that
they can either be replaced or the authors' permission be obtained to
change the license to GPLv2-or-later.

Andreas

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