On Wed, May 02, 2001 at 04:37:33PM -0400, Alan Shutko wrote:
> "John H. Robinson, IV" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> >
> > You may distribute a precompiled package if
> >
> > o installing your package produces exactly the same files, in
> > exactly the same locations, that a user would obtain by
> > installing one of my packages listed above;
>
> If you compile it yourself, the files will not be exactly the same.
> I'm not sure if timestamps are embedded in binary files on Linux, but
> even if not, the odds that a different compiler will produce the exact
> same files as his are unlikely. It means you have to link against the
> exact same libraries as djb.
>
> So, "makes it impossible to distribute binaries that aren't compiled by DJB
> himself" sounds pretty accurate to me. It may not be the original
> intent of the license, but what it looks like.
djb uses openbsd. i do not know if you know this or not, but this is
what he uses. his tools, however, can be used on a plethora of systems.
from Solaris to HPUX to FreeBSD to, yes, Debian GNU/Linux.
not all systems are going to use the EXACT SAME LIBRARIES and EXACT SAME
TIMESTAMPS that djb has on HIS OpenBSD system. so we take a second look:
o installing your package produces exactly the same files, in
exactly the same locations, that a user would obtain by
installing one of my packages listed above;
it says ``that a user would obtain by installing'' SO this means: on
(say) a Debian 2.1 system, if a user were to get the tarbal, and compile
it against the default libs, as per the instructions, and install as per
the instructions, the binary installation should match. this means the
same locations, against the same libraries. this also means (to my
reading) no after-market patches, for the binary package.
*geesh*
but i guess i read ``exactly the same files'' differently from ``the
same exact files''
(the first i read as ``if there are files a b and c in the one, there
must be a b and c in the other. no ommisions.'' the second i read as
``a bit by bit comparison must be equivalent.'' and on ANY two different
OS's this is remarkably silly. please people! common sense!)
-john
who really really does not want to be the djb apologist here :(
