Re: GPL, readline, and static/dynamic linking

Bruce Momjian <pgman(at)candle(dot)pha(dot)pa(dot)us> writes:

> Here is an article about GPL and GPL version 3.0.
>
> http://icd.pennnet.com/Articles/Article_Display.cfm?Section=Articles&SubSection=Display&ARTICLE_ID=92350&VERSION_NUM=1
>
> The interesting thing is that Stallman says:
>
> "Our position is that it makes no difference whether programs are linked
> statically or dynamically," explains Stallman. "Either one makes a
> combined program.
>
> This would seem to imply that our dynamic linking of libreadline in
> PostgreSQL backend binaries makes the distribution of backend binaries
> fall under the GPL.

This was discussed extensively earlier. Linking dynamically or
statically doesn't make a difference in the case of a library, but as
long as readline is an optional feature for the user it's not a
problem.

--
Trond Eivind Glomsrød
Red Hat, Inc.