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Re: How to add a new target in BFD?
wilson wrote:
> > The tool is GPL and in the same public cvs repository as binutils.
> > How can that be proprietary? It even has a special exception for cgen
> > output files.
>
> In the FSF sense, it is proprietary to Red Hat because the FSF
> doesn't own it.
Your understanding of "FSF sense" does not jibe with
<http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/categories.html#ProprietarySoftware>.
> Red Hat hasn't submitted the tool to the FSF because it believes
> that it gives them a proprietary advantage over other competitors.
> [...]
This is erroneous speculation. The above thought might have been a
reason for not freeing cgen right after its development. However,
since its release THREE YEARS AGO as free software, such a
"proprietary advantage" cannot exist.
> There is also the matter that it is FSF policy to avoid reliance on
> code owned by others. FSF policy is very clear in this area. [...]
Where can one find this "very clear" policy, and what does it have to
say about reliance on packages like TeX, Linux, Apache, and CVS?
> > > then at the minimum I think we need to move all *.cpu input files
> > > from cgen to binutils,
> >
> > We're already doing that.
>
> It hasn't happened yet as far as I can tell. Also, not everyone has
> agreed to this yet, particularly the cgen maintainers. [...]
Right - IMHO we don't need to move the files. It would be sufficient
to include a copy with binutils distributions (like gdb has been doing
some time), or perhaps to copy them.
wilson earlier wrote:
> [...] Red Hat hasn't been demanding copyright assignments for cgen
> contributions. [...] This means that the current practice of
> putting FSF copyrights into cgen output is suspect. [..] Only the
> people who own the copyrights to the cgen input can contribute the
> cgen output to the FSF. [...]
... and in fact this is what we've been doing so far. AFAIK only
people who have FSF assignments for binutils/gdb have made relevant
contributions to cgen .cpu files.
- FChE