GPL readline, was Re: [Gllug] Which laptop?

[William Palfreman]

On Thu, 30 Aug 2001, Richard Clamp wrote:

> On Thu, Aug 30, 2001 at 03:27:35PM +0100, David Damerell wrote:
> > Ctrl-R for reverse i-search is a godsend, too - and in general
> > learning readline functions, using 'em in all programs that are linked
> > with readline,
>
> *cough* They're emacs keybindings, readline just emulates it
>
> >                and writing your own programs with readline is no bad idea.
>
> *cough* Only if you really wanted to give away all your code under the
> GPL.  readline, though being a library, is released under the GPL, not
> the LGPL.  This is possibly why it's not used as widely as it
> otherwise would be.

Is this an example of what MS call Viral Licensing?  That is, now that
readline is GPL, there is no way it can be made LGPL?  So every program
incorporating readline has to be GPLed too (which wouldn't happen with the
less restrictive LGPL)?

Actually, I thought that wasn't how it worked.  If you take the kernel,
that may be GPL, but you can write a module for it under any licence you
like.  Why wouldn't that happen with a program using readline?

-Bill.


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