Is glibc GPL?
glibc is GPL licensed, and the GPL explicitly forbids statically linking to it unless your code is GPL too. Thus any non-GPL project has it’s license tainted by the GPL if you statically link it. It’s not a technical limitation, it’s a legal one.
Is GPL license permissive?
The GPL series are all copyleft licenses, which means that any derivative work must be distributed under the same or equivalent license terms. This is in distinction to permissive software licenses, of which the BSD licenses and the MIT License are widely used, less restrictive examples.
What is glibc license?
Released under the GNU Lesser General Public License, glibc is free software. The GNU C Library project provides the core libraries for the GNU system, as well as many systems that use Linux as the kernel. These libraries provide critical APIs including ISO C11, POSIX. 1-2008, BSD, OS-specific APIs and more.
What is the difference between glibc and libc?
libc is a generic term used to refer to all C standard libraries — there are several. glibc is the most commonly used one; others include eglibc, uclibc, and dietlibc. It’s the “standard library”.
Can I use a GPL library?
In general terms, if you use GPL-licensed code in your program that you wish to distribute to others, then you must also license your program under the GPL. This has implications for proprietary and/or commercial software developers, as many popular and important libraries are licensed under the GPL.
Why can’t GCC libraries be distributed under the GPL?
Because of that, if these libraries were simply distributed only under the terms of the GPL, all the object code that GCC produces would have to be distributed under the same terms. However, the FSF decided long ago to allow developers to use GCC’s libraries to compile any program, regardless of its license.
Can I use glibc for dynamic linking to a library?
Under the normal circumstances that your question present (i.e. dynamic linking to a library assumed to exist on the user’s system and thus not distributed with the program) the following part of the license text will save the day for any program using glibc:
Why do we allow people to use GCC without a license?
We decided to permit this because forbidding it seemed likely to backfire, and because using small libraries to limit the use of GCC seemed like the tail wagging the dog. Therefore, these libraries have always had license exceptions that allow people to distribute the object code GCC produces under any license.
Does the GPL require that projects using GPL code to be released?
“requiring that any original works . . . to also be released as free/open code under the GPL” – This may be a distinction without a difference in your case, but that is notwhat the GPL requires. It does not say that projects using GPL code must be released to the public.