[libvirt] [PATCH 1/2] (Updated & fixed) OpenNebula driver, libvirt-0.6.2

[Daniel Veillard]

On Mon, May 25, 2009 at 06:01:06PM +0200, Ruben S. Montero wrote:
> Hi Daniel,
> 
> First, thank you very much for improving the OpenNebula driver with
> your comments. I am totally agree with you suggestion about the
> configure.in, it should be a quick fix.

  Okay :-)

> Regarding the licenses, I do not really see the problem. I mean, you
> can link with GPL and Apache as libvirt is using LGPL. But the

  My recollection is that the daemon is linking against a GPL library
and as a result the libvirt code and the drivers included in the daemon
end up being under the GPL, the library itself is still LGPL, so the
problem is not for programs linking to libvirt but just for the
libvirtd daemon.
  Since I wanted to make sure, I looked back in the archives:
    http://www.mail-archive.com/libvir-list@redhat.com/msg09486.html
the GPL problem was with HAL and DBus, which are available under
GPL *or ASL*, so my recollection was partial, and I think there
is no real problem, as OpenNebula is available under ASL too.
However it could still be a good idea to try to align OpenNebula client
API Licence with (L)GPL if you have the possibility to do this,
as libvirt daemon support for various pieces of low level infrastructure
expands, this means linking with low level libraries which are
frequently provided under GPL or LGPL, it would be annoying to
inadvertently raise a Licence conflict as we expands libvirt
capabilities.

> OpenNebula driver is not using any GPL libraries; I mean, you have to
> be license compatible with all the libraries you are using, but do all
> those libraries need to be also license compatible among them?. I am
> not an expert in license issues so you are probably right.
> 
> So, if finally there is some kind of incompatibility with OpenNebula
> using Apache2, we have a couple of options:
> 
> 1- use the conditional compilation. I do not like this one either
> 2- Change the license of the OpenNebula client API to LPGL (just the
> library files)
> 3- License the OpenNebula client API with LGPL for the libvirt project
> 4- Include a GPL linking exception in those libraries/drivers using GPL

  I think 2, 3 or 4 would be just fine from purely a libvirt POV.
I don't know the community using the OpenNebula client API, I guess if
you start doing some change to the License, maybe it's worth asking them
as 2 or 4 might be very interesting for them too.
  That doesn't need to be rushed, there is a potential issue here but
it's more long-term and rather a matter of alignment.

  thanks for looking and your feedback !

Daniel

-- 
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