Re: GPL and statically linking with non-GPL standard C library

[Barry Margolin]

In article <x5oeobyq04.fsf@lola.goethe.zz>, David Kastrup <dak@gnu.org> 
wrote:

> Barry Margolin <barmar@alum.mit.edu> writes:
> 
> > In article <x5u0y3yt3x.fsf@lola.goethe.zz>, David Kastrup <dak@gnu.org> 
> > wrote:
> > 
> > > byron@cc.gatech.edu (Byron A Jeff) writes:
> > > 
> > > > In article <x5n03v2vdi.fsf@lola.goethe.zz>, David Kastrup  
> > > > <dak@gnu.org> 
> > > > wrote:
> > > > -ap85@georgetown.edu (Alexander R. Pruss) writes:
> > > > -
> > > > -> I'd like to distribute GPL code compiled with Borland's C compiler,
> > > > -> and statically linked with Borland's C library.  Is this permitted?
> > > > -
> > > > -According to what?  The GPL clearly tells you that you have to add the
> > > > -source code of your stuff.
> > > > 
> > > > I think you missed the point. The OP wants to compile and statically 
> > > > link 
> > > > GPL code with a proprietary compiler and library.
> > > 
> > > Which was the only way to get binaries for GPL programs at one time.
> > > What point am I missing?
> > 
> > They were typically distributed as source code, not pre-linked
> > executables.
> 
> Come off it.  Of _course_ for example the GNU utilities for
> DOS/Windows were distributed as binaries as well as source code.  And
> as binaries that would need proprietary static libraries to link with
> if you wanted to compile them, and proprietary compilers.

I wasn't talking about DOS/Windows.  I was talking about the period 
before the GNU utilities were ported to those systems.  Source 
distributions were the most common way to distribute free software in 
the 80's.

> And I've developed with quite old Unix systems, and it was quite usual
> to have runtime licences/systems which were just exorbitantly
> expensive and intended to be used for the boxes installed at the
> customer, and the development systems, which were bonecrushingly
> expensive.  Since the hardware was still more expensive, this was not
> that much of an issue: you would not have wanted to equip customer
> systems with the amount of RAM necessary for a development system,
> anyway.
> 
> > And even when they were pre-linked, they were linked with libraries
> > that are normally available with with the OS, so the exception
> > applied.
> 
> Static libraries are not "available with the OS" without a
> development system.

I was talking in the past tense -- about what it was like in the 
mid-80's when GNU started and the GPL was written.  Most Unix systems 
came with C compilers and full libraries.  Even now, many versions of 
Unix that don't come with a compiler still have a linker and all the 
standard Unix libraries.  Try "ls /usr/lib/lib*.a" on most Unix systems.

-- 
Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu
Arlington, MA
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