Path: utzoo!telly!ddsw1!mcdchg!rutgers!ukma!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!WHEATIES.AI.MIT.EDU!rms
From: rms@WHEATIES.AI.MIT.EDU (Richard Stallman)
Newsgroups: gnu.gcc
Subject: More confusion on GNU copying conditions
Message-ID: <8812032112.AA00778@sugar-bombs.ai.mit.edu>
Date: 3 Dec 88 21:12:03 GMT
References: <19489@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU>
Sender: daemon@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu
Distribution: gnu
Organization: GNUs Not Usenet
Lines: 30


    If I was to compile program foo.c with gcc, then link it with the
    gcc supplied libraries, BUT supply my customers with:

	    My executable
	    My object code
	    All the gcc libraries in archive format
	    Source to gcc and all libraries.(The full current gcc distribution)
	    Makefiles which would re-link my object code with the gcc libraries.

    Would selling this violate the Copyright {left?}?

This question seems to presuppose an inaccurate view of the facts of
how our software is distributed and labeled, so it is not clear what
question was intended.

If "All the GCC libraries (the full current GCC distribution)" is
taken literally, it refers GNULIB, the sole library in the GCC
distribution.  As I have explained several times, GNULIB is a special
case because its functions are so small that I doubt copyright applies
to them.  If so, the answer is No.

It is more likely that the questioner intends to refer to all the
other GNU libraries, which are not part of the GCC distribution.  If
so, the answer is Yes.  Because that executable contains GNU code
(parts of the GNU libraries), it cannot be distributed unless all of
its source code is available as free software.  Nothing less will do.

Whether you use GCC, and whether you distribute GCC source code, have
no effect on the answer.