[Libguestfs] Request to relicense hash gnulib module to LGPLv2+
Richard W.M. Jones
rjones at redhat.com
Tue Nov 5 15:51:41 UTC 2013
On Wed, Aug 28, 2013 at 06:51:11PM +0100, Richard W.M. Jones wrote:
> libguestfs (an LGPLv2+ library) uses the 'hash' module, which turns
> out to be "GPL".
>
> Actually this happened because we started to use it in a separate
> GPL'd utility program, but later on included this functionality in the
> core library, copying the same code from the utility but not checking
> the license of 'hash'.
>
> We'd therefore like to request that 'hash' is relicensed as LGPLv2+.
> If this is not possible, we will have to rewrite the code, probably
> implementing our own hash table, which would be a shame because hash
> works well for our needs.
>
> Notes:
>
> - the code doesn't appear to call exit (it does call abort), and so
> seems to be suitable for a library
>
> - hash-pjw which we also use is already licensed as LGPLv2+
>
> - it looks like the original author was Jim Meyering (CC'd)
>
> - the dependencies are all LGPLv2+
I'm going to write (or find) a new hash implementation for libguestfs
really soon. Is there any final chance this will be relicensed?
Rich.
--
Richard Jones, Virtualization Group, Red Hat http://people.redhat.com/~rjones
libguestfs lets you edit virtual machines. Supports shell scripting,
bindings from many languages. http://libguestfs.org
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