3 ms·

But we believe the way to get around this issue is to build ZFS as a module with a CDDL license, it can still be loaded in the Linux kernel. Though it would be

But we believe the way to get around this issue is to build ZFS as a module with a CDDL license, it can still be loaded in the Linux kernel. Though it would be restricted to use the non- GPL symbols, but as long as that rule is adhered to there is no problem of legal issues. I can't believe it really is that simple ? If so, why hasn't anyone mentioned this before ?

papercrane 17y ago
It's not really that clear cut. According to Linus, as long as they aren't writing a derivative work and they only use the public kernel interfaces then it's all good. That view isn't held by all of the contributors however. The only people who would have standing to take any legal action however, probably aren't really going to care enough about it. If a Linux distribution decides to include it, I imagine a few high profile people will write angry blog posts, but that's about it. See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_kernel#Loadable_kernel_modules_and_firmware http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_kernel#Loadable_kernel_mo...
wmf 17y ago
One of the authors of DTrace explained the CDDL/Linux issue two years back so it's not surprising. http://blogs.sun.com/ahl/entry/what_if_machine_dtrace_port http://blogs.sun.com/ahl/entry/what_if_machine_dtrace_port But you have to consider the politics of the situation: no Linux vendor will ship this code so very few people will take the effort to download and install it.