Messages in this thread | | | Date | Sat, 25 May 2002 16:10:34 -0700 | From | Larry McVoy <> | Subject | Re: patent on O_ATOMICLOOKUP [Re: [PATCH] loopable tmpfs (2.4.17)] |
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On Sun, May 26, 2002 at 12:17:46AM +0200, Wolfgang Denk wrote: > > > I'm told, and I've seen, that there substantial parts of RT/Linux in the > > > RTAI source base. Isn't it true that RTAI used to be called "my-rtai" > > Can you please quote any such "substantial parts of RT/Linux in the > RTAI source"?
Well, since you asked, how about you just go diff the include directories of the two source bases. That's a wonderful place to start. Anyone who spends 5 minutes in there will see that RTAI is derived from RTL. Look at the definition of the RT task struct, it's identical. Look at the fifo.h file, big chunks of it are identical. Another fun thing is to just want the directory structure of the two source trees, more clues that it is RTL derived. It's all been pushed around a lot but I'm not sure you can take a source base and change it partially and then claim it is yours. I know if this was my source base I'd be pissed off.
Here's some more, go contrast rt_task_make_periodic() in each of the source trees, pretty clearly RTL. In fact, the scheduler code is really easy to see that it's a ripoff. Do a global substitute for s/rtl_no_interrupts()/hard_save_flags_and_cli()/ and then start diffing, the code starts matching up more.
Furthermore, look at this:
rtai-24.1.9/COPYING The intent of RTAI developers is to make the code that we write to be widely useful and that it can be copied and incorporated into other works, including libraries. In addition, we wish to make it explicitly clear that linking proprietary code with RTAI is an acceptible use -- for these reasons, we have chosen the LGPL as the distribution license.
However, at the current time, RTAI contains portions that are derived from GPL code, so if you are in a situation where the difference between GPL and LGPL is an issue, please ask.
So which is it? GPL or LGPL? I thought you guys said you made it clear that it was GPLed.
Anyway, you can jump up and down until you are blue in the face, it's absolutely obvious to anyone who looks that the RTAI stuff is derived from the RTL stuff. Yeah, sure, it's evolved, but it's the same source base and evolving it does not invalidate their license. The COPYING file in the *current* RTAI release is illegal. You can't say "Well, there is some GPL stuff in here, but we're releasing under the LGPL" just because you feel like it. Didn't you guys repeatedly state that it was GPL, not LGPL? And is it? Not according to the download. -- --- Larry McVoy lm at bitmover.com http://www.bitmover.com/lm - 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/
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