Re: 2.6.24-rc7-rt2

[Steven Rostedt]

On Wed, 16 Jan 2008, Steven Rostedt wrote:
>
> We modified mcount now, and it is derived from an objdump of glibc. So
> this is most definitely a "derived" work from glibc. But glibc is licensed
> as LGPL, which IIRC allows for non GPL to link to it.
>
> I personally could care less if we use EXPORT_SYMBOL or EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL.
> But I really want to do The Right Thing(tm). I'm not a lawyer and don't
> claim that I know anything about the law, but I'm leaning towards the non
> _GPL version because the code was from LGPL and not from strict GPL.

Sorry folks, I'm going to stick with the _GPL version. It doesn't mean
that you can't still load your nVidia module into -rt. I just means you
can't turn on function trace and then load it. Well, you might if you
don't compile the nVidia wrapper against it with function trace on.

The reason simply is to cover my butt.  By limiting it to GPL, I'm fine.
Even if the original author didn't care. But by opening it up to external
prorietary modules, I may be considered infringing on the license.

So, unless I hear from a lawyer that is willing to back me up on a non
_GPL export publically, the mcount function will stay as an
EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL.

Note: There is a definite reason for this change. The previous version
of mcount was written by Ingo Molnar, and he added the export. I've
changed mcount to be closer to the glibc code (which I derived it from),
so the change in EXPORT type is legitimate.

-- Steve
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