[Buildroot] Is GPLv2 the right license for Buildroot?

Peter Korsgaard jacmet at uclibc.org
Mon Sep 16 21:17:52 UTC 2013


>>>>> "Thomas" == Thomas Petazzoni <thomas.petazzoni at free-electrons.com> writes:

Hi,

 Thomas> Sure. But in Buildroot, things are more complicated: within Buildroot
 Thomas> *itself* there may be parts that you have to redistribute (i.e package
 Thomas> recipes for GPL programs), and some other parts you may not be willing
 Thomas> to redistribute (i.e package recipes for your own applications, or your
 Thomas> root filesystem overlay). This makes it quite difficult for a company
 Thomas> using Buildroot to easily separate what must be distributed from what
 Thomas> shouldn't be distributed.

I can only speak of personal experience, naturally (and you get to work
with a lot more companies than I do), but I haven't seen this as a big
problem. These things typically don't contain many "secrets".

People basically have 2 options:

- Integrate their changes in the Buildroot tree and gain the advantages
  of Buildroot

- Or keep it seperate (E.G add the stuff outside buildroot) and be able
  to keep it secret.

-- 
Bye, Peter Korsgaard


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