mirror of
https://github.com/rsyslog/rsyslog.git
synced 2025-12-19 23:10:41 +01:00
f4b26f77ab
this also is the first sign of something that will evolve into a well-defined "rsyslog runtime library"
73 lines
3.7 KiB
HTML
73 lines
3.7 KiB
HTML
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
|
|
<html><head>
|
|
<title>rsyslog licensing</title>
|
|
|
|
</head>
|
|
<body>
|
|
<h1>rsyslog licensing</h1>
|
|
<p><b>Most important things first: if you intend to use rsyslog inside a GPLv3 compatible project, you are free to do so.</b> You don't even need to continue reading.
|
|
If you intend to use rsyslog inside a non-GPLv3
|
|
compatible project, rsyslog offers you some liberties to do that, too. However, you then need
|
|
to study the licensing details in depth.
|
|
<p>The project hopes this is a good compromise, which also gives a boost to fellow free
|
|
software developers who release under GPLv3.
|
|
<p>And now on to the dirty and boring license details, still on a executive summary level. For the
|
|
real details, check source files and the files COPYING and COPYING.LESSER inside the distribution.
|
|
<p>The rsyslog package contains several components:
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>the rsyslog core programs (like rsyslogd)
|
|
<li>plugins (like imklog, omrelp, ...)
|
|
<li>the rsyslog runtime library
|
|
</ul>
|
|
<p>Each of these components can be thought of as individual projects. In fact, some of the
|
|
plugins have different main authors than the rest of the rsyslog package. All of these
|
|
components are currently put together into a single "rsyslog" package (tarball) for
|
|
convinience: this makes it easier to distribute a consistent version where everything
|
|
is included (and in the right versions) to build a full system. Platform package
|
|
maintainers in general take the overall package and split off the individual components, so that
|
|
users can install only what they need. In source installations, this can be done via the
|
|
proper ./configure switches.
|
|
<p>However, while it is convenient to package all parts in a single tarball, it does not
|
|
imply all of them are necessarily covered by the same license. Traditionally, GPL licenses
|
|
are used for rsyslog, because the project would like to provide free software. GPLv3 has been
|
|
used since around 2008 to help fight for our freedom. All rsyslog core programs are
|
|
released under GPLv3. But, from the beginning on, plugins were separate projects and we did not
|
|
impose and license restrictions on them. So even though all plugins that currently ship with
|
|
the rsyslog package are also placed under GPLv3, this can not taken for granted. You need
|
|
to check each plugins license terms if in question - this is especially important for
|
|
plugins that do NOT ship as part of the rsyslog tarball.
|
|
<p>In order to make rsyslog technology available to a broader range of applications,
|
|
the rsyslog runtime is, at least partly, licensed under LGPL. If in doubt, check the source file
|
|
licensing comments. As of now, the following files are licensed under LGPL:
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>queue.c/.h
|
|
<li>wti.c/.h
|
|
<li>wtp.c/.h
|
|
<li>vm.c/.h
|
|
<li>vmop.c/.h
|
|
<li>vmprg.c/.h
|
|
<li>vmstk.c/.h
|
|
<li>expr.c/.h
|
|
<li>sysvar.c/.h
|
|
<li>ctok.c/.h
|
|
<li>ctok_token.c/.h
|
|
<li>regexp.c/.h
|
|
<li>sync.c/.h
|
|
<li>stream.c/.h
|
|
<li>var.c/.h
|
|
</ul>
|
|
This list will change as time of the runtime modularization. At some point in the future, there will
|
|
be a well-designed set of files inside a runtime library branch and all of these will be LGPL. Some
|
|
select extras will probably still be covered by GPL. We are following a similar licensing
|
|
model in GnuTLS, which makes effort to reserve some functionality exclusively to open source
|
|
projects.
|
|
<p>[<a href="manual.html">manual index</a>] [<a href="http://www.rsyslog.com/">rsyslog site</a>]</p>
|
|
<p><font size="2">This documentation is part of the
|
|
<a href="http://www.rsyslog.com/">rsyslog</a>
|
|
project.<br>
|
|
Copyright © 2008 by <a href="http://www.gerhards.net/rainer">Rainer
|
|
Gerhards</a> and
|
|
<a href="http://www.adiscon.com/">Adiscon</a>. Last Update: 2008-04-15.
|
|
Released under the GNU GPL version 3 or higher.</font></p>
|
|
</body></html>
|