[augeas-devel] Relicensing under the LGPLv3

[Daniel P. Berrange]

On Wed, Jul 09, 2008 at 02:59:48PM -0700, David Lutterkort wrote:
> I am thinking about relicensing Augeas under the LGPLv3, one of the
> reasons being that I want to use at least one gnulib module
> (canonicalize_file_name) that is only available under the LGPLv3.

What does that do ?  Can you use realpath() instead ?

> As far as I understand the matter, there should be little impact on the
> users of Augeas, in particular what can be linked against libaugeas, but
> IANAL, and I'd like to hear from others before I take that step.

Well the obvious impact is prevention of its use in GPLv2 only programs,
and any (L)GPLv2+ programs which use it, result in a LGPLv3+ combined
work. Personally I take a conservative view & prefer to keep things 
(L)GPLv2+ licensed. Though clearly in a year or two there'll be a tipping
point where too many useful libs are v3+ and it thus ceases to be pratical
to care about v2 compatability. We're not there yet though

As an unscientific test I ran 

  rpm -qa --qf '[%{NAME} %{LICENSE}\n]'

On my Fedora 9 system and then greped for GPLv2 

a52dec GPLv2
bazaar GPLv2
busybox-anaconda GPLv2
busybox GPLv2
cdrdao GPLv2
chkconfig GPLv2
collectd GPLv2
cracklib-dicts GPLv2
cracklib GPLv2
cracklib-python GPLv2
createrepo GPLv2
crontabs Public Domain and GPLv2
cryptsetup-luks GPLv2
culmus-fonts GPLv2
cupsddk-drivers GPLv2
cups-debuginfo GPLv2
cups GPLv2
cups-lpd GPLv2
device-mapper GPLv2
dnsmasq GPLv2 or GPLv3
dvd+rw-tools GPLv2
dwarves GPLv2
e2fsprogs GPLv2
ElectricFence GPLv2
elfutils-devel GPLv2 with exceptions
elfutils-devel-static GPLv2 with exceptions
elfutils GPLv2 with exceptions
elfutils-libelf-devel GPLv2 with exceptions
elfutils-libelf-devel-static GPLv2 with exceptions
elfutils-libelf GPLv2 with exceptions
elfutils-libs GPLv2 with exceptions
elinks GPLv2
emacs-git GPLv2
enca GPLv2
enscript GPLv2
evolution GPLv2 and GFDL+
fedora-release GPLv2
freenx-server GPLv2
frysk GPLv2 with exceptions and BSD and CPL and Public Domain and EPL
genisoimage GPLv2
ghostscript-debuginfo GPLv2
ghostscript GPLv2
git-all GPLv2
git-arch GPLv2
git-cvs GPLv2
git-email GPLv2
git GPLv2
git-gui GPLv2
gitk GPLv2
git-svn GPLv2
gnome-backgrounds GPLv2
gnome-common GPLv2
gnome-volume-manager GPLv2
gnumeric GPLv2
gnuplot gnuplot and GPLv2
gobby GPLv2
goffice GPLv2
groff GPLv2 and GFDL
groff-perl GPLv2 and GFDL
gzip GPLv2 and GFDL
hal AFL or GPLv2
hal-cups-utils GPLv2
hal-devel AFL or GPLv2
hal-info AFL or GPLv2
hal-libs AFL or GPLv2
htdig GPLv2
inotify-tools GPLv2
intltool GPLv2 with exception
iptables GPLv2
iptables-ipv6 GPLv2
istanbul GPLv2
java-1.6.0-openjdk-devel GPLv2 with exceptions
java-1.6.0-openjdk GPLv2 with exceptions
java-1.6.0-openjdk-javadoc GPLv2 with exceptions
java-1.6.0-openjdk-plugin GPLv2 with exceptions
kdebase3 GPLv2
kdebase3-libs GPLv2
kdebase3-pim-ioslaves GPLv2
kdebase GPLv2
kdebase-libs GPLv2
kdebase-runtime GPLv2
kdebase-workspace GPLv2
kdebase-workspace-libs GPLv2
kernel-devel GPLv2
kernel-devel GPLv2
kernel GPLv2
kernel GPLv2
kernel-headers GPLv2
kernel-PAE-devel GPLv2
kernel-PAE-devel GPLv2
kernel-xen-devel GPLv2
kernel-xen-devel GPLv2
ksysguardd GPLv2
kudzu GPLv2
libdwarves1 GPLv2
libmad GPLv2
libpaper GPLv2
libsilc GPLv2 or BSD
libvolume_id GPLv2
livecd-tools GPLv2
lohit-fonts-hindi GPLv2
lohit-fonts-punjabi GPLv2
lohit-fonts-tamil GPLv2
lohit-fonts-telugu GPLv2
lsdvd GPLv2
lvm2-cluster GPLv2
lvm2 GPLv2
lzo GPLv2
MAKEDEV GPLv2
man GPLv2
mercurial GPLv2
mercurial-hgk GPLv2
mjpegtools-libs GPLv2
mlocate GPLv2
mysql-devel GPLv2 with exceptions
mysql GPLv2 with exceptions
mysql-libs GPLv2 with exceptions
mysql-server GPLv2 with exceptions
nmap BSD with advertising, BSD, GPLv2
nodoka-metacity-theme GPLv2
nodoka-theme-gnome GPLv2
ntp (MIT and BSD and BSD with advertising) and (MIT and BSD) and GPLv2
ntsysv GPLv2
oxygen-icon-theme GPLv2
pcmciautils GPLv2
perl-Git GPLv2
perl-SQL-Translator GPLv2
perl-Text-RecordParser GPLv2
perl-Text-Smart GPLv2
perl-Text-Smart-Plugin GPLv2
perl-Text-TabularDisplay GPLv2
pidgin-otr GPLv2
pinfo GPLv2
pm-utils GPLv2
poppler-devel GPLv2 and Redistributable, no modification permitted
poppler-glib GPLv2 and Redistributable, no modification permitted
poppler GPLv2 and Redistributable, no modification permitted
poppler-qt GPLv2 and Redistributable, no modification permitted
poppler-utils GPLv2 and Redistributable, no modification permitted
pungi GPLv2
pykickstart GPLv2
python-fedora GPLv2
python-pyblock GPLv2 or GPLv3
pyxf86config GPLv2
qt3 QPL or GPLv2 or GPLv3
qt GPLv3 or GPLv2 with exceptions or QPL
qt-x11 GPLv3 or GPLv2 with exceptions or QPL
quilt GPLv2
redhat-lsb GPLv2
rhgb GPLv2
rhpxl GPLv2
rpmlint GPLv2
ruby-libs Ruby or GPLv2
ruby Ruby or GPLv2
scsi-target-utils GPLv2
stunnel GPLv2
system-config-lvm GPLv2
tmpwatch GPLv2
totem GPLv2 with exception
totem-gstreamer GPLv2 with exception
totem-mozplugin GPLv2 with exception
totem-xine GPLv2 with exception
udev GPLv2
valgrind GPLv2
vbetool GPLv2
vnc-debuginfo GPLv2
vnc GPLv2
vnc-libs GPLv2
vnc-server GPLv2
vorbis-tools GPLv2
wodim GPLv2
xmlto GPLv2
xorg-x11-drv-avivo GPLv2 and zlib
yum-metadata-parser GPLv2
yum-updatesd GPLv2
zsnes GPLv2



The question is how many of these would be interested in Augeus ? The
most likely candidates are KDE, Java, HAL and Ruby since they're general
purpose libs/apps sitting as a foundation for many other apps

Daniel
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