brand@jupiter.cs.uni-dortmund.de said:
> Great! The "complete source code" for the kernel does include each
> and every single patch applied since linux-0.0.1? Guess I'll have to
> complain to a certain Torvalds then...
> Don't be silly. "Complete source code" means the source needed to
> rebuild the binary, nothing more. If that is a mangled version derived
> from some other source, so be it. You are explicitly allowed to
> distribute changed versions, but only under GPL. [IANAL etc, so...]
I disagree. A preprocessed source file with all the variables renamed to
random strings would suffice to rebuild the binary, and is obviously not
acceptable -- being able to rebuild the binary is not the only criterion.
"The source code for a work means the preferred form of the work
for making modifications to it."
Note that the GPL doesn't say you have to give it in the preferred form for
_building_ it, but the preferred form for _modifying_ it.
In the opinion of many devlopers, the preferred form of the Linux kernel for
maintaining it is a set of individual patches against the closest
'official' release, and not a tarball containing already-modified code.
-- dwmw2- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Jan 15 2003 - 22:00:38 EST