[AGENT++] Agent++ license clarification

Fri Oct 9 23:59:06 CEST 2015

Hi Torsten,

Yes, of course it is correct when you state in the licensing document 
that the Library
GNU Public License 2 applies to the libg++ generated files of the
Agent++ software, which are the files you listed below.

(However, from my point of view - as long as those files are no modified 
and extracted
from the rest - those files act like a call to a libg++ library at runtime.)

Best regards,
Frank

Am 09.10.2015 um 12:06 schrieb Torsten Fleischer:
> Hi Frank,
>
> thanks for the response.
>
> I found this copyright notice in the following files:
>
> avl_map.h/.cpp
> map.h/.cpp
> mib_avl_map.h/.cpp
> mib_map.h/.cpp
> oidx_defs.h
>
> The reason, why I need the clarification, is that I wan't to use the
> Agent++ library on an embedded device.
> For all the open source I use on that device, I have to ship the license
> texts and, depending on the license, the sources too.
>
> First of all, for the Agent++ library I have to ship the Apache 2 license
> text. The generated files in turn imply that I also have to ship the Library
> GNU Public License 2.
>
> If I understood it right, the Agent++ distribution contains the Agent++
> library and due to the generated files additionally a part of libg++.
>
> Is it correct, when I state in my licensing document that the Library
> GNU Public License 2 applies to the libg++ generated files of the
> Agent++ software?
>
> Bestr Regards,
> Torsten Fleischer
>
> 2015-10-09 2:37 GMT+02:00 Frank Fock <fock at agentpp.com>:
>> Hi Torsten,
>>
>> Which source files are you referring to?
>>
>> The AGENT++ sources are released under the Apache 2 license.
>> There are a few files, however, that have been generated based
>> on templates licensed under that Apache 2 license using
>> the genclass of the libg++. The resulting code files are originally
>> licensed under the Library GNU Public License 2 as stated
>> by genclass in the generated files.
>>
>> Although the sources are included in the AGENT++ distribution,
>> the genclass generated files can be and should be treated as
>> if there were functions of the libc++ dynamically used by the
>> final executable.
>> You may ask very rightly "why?". The answer is a bit technical
>> and historic:
>>
>> The genclass mechanism was created because the g++ template
>> engine was not able to generate container classes in a proper way
>> as nowadays provided by the C++ standard library.
>>
>> Therefore the code provided by those source files is indeed
>> virtually part of the C++ library but is used by AGENT++ like
>> one would use a C++ standard library collection class when the
>> compiler would expand the collection template on a concrete
>> AGENT++ class during compile time.
>>
>> This is exactly the use of those files in the AGENT++ library.
>> As a consequence, those files do not impose the requirement
>> to license any of the other AGENT++ sources under the (L)GPL.
>> Otherwise, this would be also the fact for any sources that use
>> the (GNU) C++ standard library.
>>
>> The old genclass code has not been replaced by C++ standard lib
>> collections yet, because of backward compatibility reasons.
>> In a next major version, this break/change will be done though.
>>
>> Does this help?
>>
>> Best regards,
>> Frank
>>
>>
>> Am 08.10.2015 um 12:52 schrieb Torsten Fleischer:
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> the Agent++ library is licensed under the terms of Apache 2.0.
>>>
>>> But I found some files in the source code that contain a copyright notice
>>> refering to GPL:
>>>
>>>           Copyright (C) 1988 Free Software Foundation
>>>               written by Doug Lea (dl at rocky.oswego.edu)
>>>
>>>           This file is part of the GNU C++ Library.  This library is free
>>>           software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the
>>> terms of
>>>           the GNU Library General Public License as published by the Free
>>>           Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your
>>>           option) any later version.  This library is distributed in the
>>> hope
>>>           that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even
>>> the
>>>           implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
>>>           PURPOSE.  See the GNU Library General Public License for more
>>> details.
>>>           You should have received a copy of the GNU Library General Public
>>>           License along with this library; if not, write to the Free
>>> Software
>>>           Foundation, 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307,
>>> USA.
>>>
>>> This confuses me somewhat. Are these files licensed under Apache or GPL?
>>> Does this copyright really apply?  I don't think that these files are part
>>> of
>>> the GNU C++ library.
>>>
>>>
>>> Best Regards,
>>> Torsten Fleischer
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> AGENTPP mailing list
>>> AGENTPP at agentpp.org
>>> https://oosnmp.net/mailman/listinfo/agentpp
>>
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>> 73257 Koengen, Germany
>> https://agentpp.com
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>> Fax:   +49 7024 8688231
>>
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https://agentpp.com
Phone: +49 7024 8688230
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