GPL code issue?
Hi,
In src/backend/parser/parse.h there is a copyright that reads as below.
Note the bottom section that says that the GPL is only excepted for
files generated by Bison *from* this file. This implies to me that this
file is GPL'd, and therefore shouldn't be in the tarball (or pgAdmin
where Andreas wants to use it) - or have I missed something?
Regards, Dave.
/* A Bison parser, made by GNU Bison 1.875. */
/* Skeleton parser for Yacc-like parsing with Bison,
Copyright (C) 1984, 1989, 1990, 2000, 2001, 2002 Free Software
Foundation, Inc.
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 2, or (at your option)
any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330,
Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA. */
/* As a special exception, when this file is copied by Bison into a
Bison output file, you may use that output file without restriction.
This special exception was added by the Free Software Foundation
in version 1.24 of Bison. */
Dave Page wrote:
Hi,
In src/backend/parser/parse.h there is a copyright that reads as below.
Note the bottom section that says that the GPL is only excepted for
files generated by Bison *from* this file. This implies to me that this
file is GPL'd, and therefore shouldn't be in the tarball (or pgAdmin
where Andreas wants to use it) - or have I missed something?/* As a special exception, when this file is copied by Bison into a
Bison output file, you may use that output file without restriction.
This special exception was added by the Free Software Foundation
in version 1.24 of Bison. */
IMHO, parse.h and gram.c *are* bison output files, so the term 'this
file' is misleading.
Regards,
Andreas
"Dave Page" <dpage@vale-housing.co.uk> writes:
In src/backend/parser/parse.h there is a copyright that reads as below.
Note the bottom section that says that the GPL is only excepted for
files generated by Bison *from* this file. This implies to me that this
file is GPL'd,
No. The text in question is copied verbatim from some Bison component
file that supplies a lot of fixed boilerplate for Bison output files.
It's not very well phrased, perhaps, but their intent is clearly to
exempt Bison output files from the GPL, and this *is* a Bison output
file.
regards, tom lane
Dave Page wrote:
/* A Bison parser, made by GNU Bison 1.875. */
Given that this file appears to be produced *by* Bison, and given this
exception:
/* As a special exception, when this file is copied by Bison into a
Bison output file, you may use that output file without restriction.
This special exception was added by the Free Software Foundation
in version 1.24 of Bison. */
it would appear that the file can be used without restriction. Any
output from bison or flex is non-GPL, AIUI. Any input *into* bison,
which is GPL'd before processing, *is* restricted. Given that bison
doesn't take .h files as input, doesn't it make sense that this was
produced *by* bison, and thus unrestricted?
ahp