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Using a GPL tool in one's build process - is documentation required? [closed]

开发者 https://www.devze.com 2023-01-11 10:13 出处:网络
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If one uses a GPL-licensed tool as part of their build process (of open source software), and...

  • In your documentation it states that programmers must download such tool i开发者_JAVA技巧n order to properly build the software
  • The GPL-licensed tool is not part of the resulting software package in any way
  • You provide a download for this tool from your own server, and/or include it with your application's source for convenience

What sort of documentation, if any, would be required in this situation?

Side note: the tool in question is http://www.yoursway.com/free/#createdmg


I do not think using a GPL-licensed build tool places any restrictions on how you distribute the resulting software.

A lot of commercial software is created using gcc, and they do not need to do anything because of that (not even telling the users what compiler they used).

For open-source software, unless the tool used is very uncommon (and maybe even then) you can fulfill your requirement to make the source available by just making the source (including build scripts) available, without going to great lengths to make it easier for anyone to get all the build tools and their environment set up (although you should of course do that).

Here is the relevant section from the GPL (emphasis added)

The source code for a work means the preferred form of the work for making modifications to it. For an executable work, complete source code means all the source code for all modules it contains, plus any associated interface definition files, plus the scripts used to control compilation and installation of the executable. However, as a special exception, the source code distributed need not include anything that is normally distributed (in either source or binary form) with the major components (compiler, kernel, and so on) of the operating system on which the executable runs, unless that component itself accompanies the executable.


No documentation is required, but if you distribute a GPL-licensed tool (as it sems you do), you must also be prepared to provide the source for the tool to the people you distribute it to.

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