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> It exports many symbols for drivers (proprietary or otherwise) to use internally. I fail to see how those symbols being exported makes the relevant functiona

by jnky 11y ago

> It exports many symbols for drivers (proprietary or otherwise) to use internally. I fail to see how those symbols being exported makes the relevant functionality public vs. internal to the kernel [1] > Some symbols are exported GPL_ONLY, which means that only GPL drivers may call those symbols. I don't think that is accurate. Drivers are necessarily derivative works of the kernel and have to be licensed under the GPL anyway. In practice closed source driver modules seem to be tolerated, even if they are not strictly compliant with the kernel's license.[2] The purpose behind the GPL_ONLY symbols is that a driver has to declare itself compliant with the license to use the symbols. If a proprietary driver would declare itself GPL compliant to gain access to GPL_only symbols, its author would be in even muddier waters than before. [1] https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/stable_api_nonsense.txt https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/stable_api_nonsense... [2] http://archive.linuxgizmos.com/are-non-gpl-loadable-linux-drivers-really-unot-u-a-problem-a/ http://archive.linuxgizmos.com/are-non-gpl-loadable-linux-dr...

amscanne 11y ago
> I fail to see how those symbols being exported makes the relevant functionality public vs. internal to the kernel [1] It's not stable, but it's an API. I can write and distribute a proprietary module that uses those symbols. I can't do that with symbols that aren't exported. > I don't think that is accurate. Drivers are necessarily derivative works of the kernel and have to be licensed under the GPL anyway. In practice closed source driver modules seem to be tolerated, even if they are not strictly compliant with the kernel's license.[2] The purpose behind the GPL_ONLY symbols is that a driver has to declare itself compliant with the license to use the symbols. If a proprietary driver would declare itself GPL compliant to gain access to GPL_only symbols, its author would be in even muddier waters than before. Now you're just being pedantic. Obviously when I said "GPL drivers" I mean those which explicitly include a MODULE_LICENSE("GPL") directive. What else would I mean? I'm not engaging in legal speculation.
monocasa 11y ago
> Drivers are necessarily derivative works of the kernel and have to be licensed under the GPL anyway. It can be a grey area. Quoting Linus himself > But one gray area in particular is something like a driver that was originally written for another operating system (ie clearly not a derived work of Linux in origin). http://yarchive.net/comp/linux/gpl_modules.html http://yarchive.net/comp/linux/gpl_modules.html

by jnky 11y ago

amscanne 11y ago

> I fail to see how those symbols being exported makes the relevant functionality public vs. internal to the kernel [1] It's not stable, but it's an API. I can write and distribute a proprietary module that uses those symbols. I can't do that with symbols that aren't exported. > I don't think that is accurate. Drivers are necessarily derivative works of the kernel and have to be licensed under the GPL anyway. In practice closed source driver modules seem to be tolerated, even if they are not strictly compliant with the kernel's license.[2] The purpose behind the GPL_ONLY symbols is that a driver has to declare itself compliant with the license to use the symbols. If a proprietary driver would declare itself GPL compliant to gain access to GPL_only symbols, its author would be in even muddier waters than before. Now you're just being pedantic. Obviously when I said "GPL drivers" I mean those which explicitly include a MODULE_LICENSE("GPL") directive. What else would I mean? I'm not engaging in legal speculation.

monocasa 11y ago

> Drivers are necessarily derivative works of the kernel and have to be licensed under the GPL anyway. It can be a grey area. Quoting Linus himself > But one gray area in particular is something like a driver that was originally written for another operating system (ie clearly not a derived work of Linux in origin). http://yarchive.net/comp/linux/gpl_modules.html http://yarchive.net/comp/linux/gpl_modules.html