> So, you're telling me that the preferred form for making modifications to the source code of a router does not include the scripts which install onto the rout

> So, you're telling me that the preferred form for making modifications to the source code of a router does not include the scripts which install onto the router to test those modifications? No. Not really. GPLv2 requires that the modifier of source code release the tools to build/compile that source code into an executable. Whether or not the source code can be run directly (ex. Ruby, Python) or requires a compile/assemble/link process (ex. C, Java) is irrelevant. The GPLv2 also does not entitle or give anyone rights to any method to execute that recontributed and rebuilt code, for example if the code was ported to a proprietary hardware or some closed sourced ISA. However, IANAL and could very well be wrong because the GPL is such an unwieldy beast of unknowns.