Re: Bundling cygrunsrv with stand-alone projects

[Corinna Vinschen <corinna-cygwin at cygwin dot com>]

On Oct 14 10:16, Soeren Nils Kuklau wrote:
> we're working on a cross-platform server daemon which on Windows gets 
> compiled through Cygwin. To make installation convenient for Windows 
> users, we would like to bundle `cygwin1.dll' and the necessary files for 
> `cygrunsrv' with our Windows port. Before we try and implement that on 

Why?  You know that you create a couple of problems for users who already
have installed Cygwin on their machines?  But that's a technical problem
so I ask you to discuss this on the base mailing list cygwin@cygwin.com.
Thanks.

> our side, however, we would like to know about the licensing implications.
> 
> The project is `non-commercial' (as in 1) our primary purpose isn't to 
> make big bucks off it and 2) it is available for download at no cost) 
> and `open-source' (as in there's an issue tracker, and we will probably 
> allow anonymous SVN access to the source as the project becomes more 
> stable), but not under a GPL-compatible license.

The secret word is "GPL".  It doesn't matter if you want to make money
with it as long as you release your source code under an Open-Source
compliant license according to the following definition:

  http://www.opensource.org/docs/definition_plain.html

If your software doesn't meet these criterias, you will have to buy
a buy-out license from Red Hat, see http://cygwin.com/licensing.html

Please note that when you're distributing binary versions of Cygwin and
cygrunsrv, you also have to provide the sources from which the Cygwin
and cygrunsrv versions have been built to comply with the GPL.  You must
not rely on Red Hat keeping the sources of these versions for you.

> I also found rather little documentation on `cygrunsrv'. The bundled 
> README file comprehensively lists possible arguments, but appears to 
> assume that the daemon to be run is inside the Cygwin root directory 
> (such as C:\Cygwin), whereas we believe it would make more sense to 
> distribute our package for installation inside Windows' Program Files 
> folder. Does `cygrunsrv' understand Windows-like paths, or can we rely 
> on a `/cygdrive/c/Program\ Files/'-like path structure?

This is a non-licensing related question again, please ask this on
cygwin@cygwin.com.  Thanks.


Corinna

-- 
Corinna Vinschen                  Please, send mails regarding Cygwin to
Cygwin Project Co-Leader          mailto:cygwin@cygwin.com
Red Hat, Inc.