[Libguestfs] Request to relicense hash gnulib module to LGPLv2+

[Jim Meyering]

On Tue, Nov 5, 2013 at 7:51 AM, Richard W.M. Jones <rjones at redhat.com> wrote:
> 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?

Hi Rich,
Sorry I didn't reply sooner.  Somehow I missed this thread completely.
libguestfs is definitely a good argument for making hash LGPLv2.
I agree to relax its license to LGPLv2, and have just pushed this change:
-------------- next part --------------
From 9f4d76b6042f8ed87009331f2ca0a5b7492027d5 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Jim Meyering <meyering at fb.com>
Date: Tue, 5 Nov 2013 08:27:10 -0800
Subject: [PATCH] hash: relax license to LGPLv2+, for libguestfs

* modules/hash (License): Change from GPL to LGPLv2+.
---
 ChangeLog    | 5 +++++
 modules/hash | 2 +-
 2 files changed, 6 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index a9cac6d..3d0f0fe 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
+2013-11-05  Jim Meyering  <meyering at fb.com>
+
+	hash: relax license to LGPLv2+, for libguestfs
+	* modules/hash (License): Change from GPL to LGPLv2+.
+
 2013-11-03  Paul Eggert  <eggert at cs.ucla.edu>

 	intprops: port to Oracle Studio c99
diff --git a/modules/hash b/modules/hash
index 57585e1..42502e7 100644
--- a/modules/hash
+++ b/modules/hash
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ Include:
 "hash.h"

 License:
-GPL
+LGPLv2+

 Maintainer:
 Jim Meyering
-- 
1.8.5.rc0.23.gaa27064