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0 pointssingpolyma31y ago0 comments

Not true at all. The LGPL does not specify anything about mode of linking or anything like that.

What the LGPL requires is that the end user be able to take the source code for the LGPL part, modify it, recompile it, and then replace the functionality in your binary provided by that part with their new part.

Obviously with dynamic linking this is almist trivial, the end user replaces the so or DLL and done.

With normal static linking, it's only a bit harder. If you ship alongside your binary a bundle of eg .o files and a script that links them together with a .a for the LGPL part for example, this is also compliant without revealing the source code to your non-lgpl part.

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10 comments · 5 top-level

alok-g1y ago· 3 in thread

Cool!

Does this also mean that one could put most of the closed source part into a DLL, make a shell executable that is open source and statically link LGPL code into the latter? This then would allow modifications to the LGPL code to be put in just by having the closed source DLL.

singpolyma3OP1y ago

I don't see why not. So long as the LGPL part can be modified and replaced, you're good.

I am not a lawyer.

saagarjha1y ago

I mean, if you're willing to do that why not just dynamically link?

alok-g1y ago

The OP article is saying that static linking leads to size reduction. That's why asking.

1 more reply

Wowfunhappy1y ago· 2 in thread

> If you ship alongside your binary a bundle of eg .o files and a script that links them together with a .a for the LGPL part for example, this is also compliant without revealing the source code to your non-lgpl part.

This is super clever, I love it! Does any software actually do this?

jcelerier1y ago

Yes. For instance some Cisco app on iOS that uses gstreamer (LGPL) does exactly this.

jimbobthrowawy1y ago

Do you mean iOS the iphone operating system, or cisco IOS the router operating system?

1 more reply

cesarb1y ago

> If you ship alongside your binary a bundle of eg .o files

You might even be able to use partial linking (ld -r) to ship a single .o file instead of a bunch of them.

bla31y ago

The linked post does mention that:

> or distribute object files for recompilation

leni5361y ago

Do you need to ship it alongside or produce it on request or link to where they can fetch it? It's not like you need to ship source code alongside either for GPL binaries.

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