Re: Can I use GCC without being forced to be GPL?

[David Kastrup]

jacob navia <jacob@jacob.remcomp.fr> writes:

> In a previous message, I have explained that I can't use the
> bfd library under linux because it is a GPLed binary.
>
> OK.
>
> But can I use the gcc compiler with
>
> system("gcc output.o");
>
> to produce the executable?
>
> If this usage of "gcc" makes my compiler system a
> "derivative work" of gcc there is no sense by trying
> to do a linux version at all.

The GPL states:

     Activities other than copying, distribution and modification are
     not covered by this License; they are outside its scope.  The act
     of running the Program is not restricted, and the output from the
     Program is covered only if its contents constitute a work based on
     the Program (independent of having been made by running the
     Program).  Whether that is true depends on what the Program does.

The output of a compiler is not commonly regarded as a "work based on
a program".

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum