GSoC 2020: OFW Import To RTEMS License Issue

[Niteesh G. S.]

On Sat, Aug 1, 2020 at 1:37 AM Joel Sherrill <joel at rtems.org> wrote:

>
>
> On Fri, Jul 31, 2020 at 2:16 PM Niteesh G. S. <niteesh.gs at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Hello,
>>
>> In a recent review of these patches
>> https://lists.rtems.org/pipermail/devel/2020-July/060653.html
>> Gedare mentioned that we cannot use these patches with the
>> current license. More details regarding the conversation can be
>> found in the following archive.
>> https://lists.rtems.org/pipermail/devel/2020-July/061000.html
>>
>> The following files have been ported to RTEMS to implement
>> the OFW API.
>> 1) openfirm.h  -- BSD-4 License
>> 2) openfirm.c  -- BSD-4 License
>> 3) ofw_fdt.c    -- BSD-2 License
>>
>> The files with BSD4 cannot be used and Gedare suggested to
>> check if we can remove the entire 4-clause cluster or remove
>> clauses #3 and #4. I checked this along with the help of Christian
>> and it seems that we can't remove those. Christian suggested
>> that we can use the header file with the BSD-4 license to some
>> extent but the source files to pose a problem. We also checked
>> OpenBSD it has the same licensing.
>>
>
> NetBSD appears to be the origin of the code and although I believe
> they did a largely blanket change from BSD-4, this code is old and
> normally, I would doubt they found the original submitter.  Which
> would be odd in this case because this is his website with email:
>
> https://solfrank.net/Wolfgang/
>
> I have privately emailed to politely ask him to relicense it to BSD-2
> for use in RTEMS. And try to do that in a way that gets it on a path
> to get changed upstream.
>
> Hopefully this will solve it.
>

Thanks for doing this Joel :).

>
>
>> So we have come up with the following suggestions
>> 1) Use the header files as it is.
>>
>
> How close are you to being able to merge? Do we have time to let
> him answer?
>

Yes, we do have a lot of time. All of my patches are based on the new build
system so we won't be able to merge until the build system is merged. And
also there are other things that have to be discussed regarding the patch.

>
>
>> 2) Most OF_* functions defined in openfirm.c have 1:1 mapping
>> with the FDT implementation in ofw_fdt.c so there is a possibility
>> to remove openfirm.c and only use openfirm.h and ofw_fdt.c.
>> For those functions which don't have a 1:1 mapping, we can add
>> an implementation in ofw_fdt.c. And remove the functions which
>> don't have an FDT based implementation eg. OF_write, OF_open etc.
>>
>> Also please remember that these patches were created with a goal
>> to import the OFW into RTEMS and remove them from libBSD so
>> will using the above approach has a chance of breaking libBSD
>> compatibility in the future?
>>
>
> Yikes. That would mean having to create our own files that are
> compatible but don't have the license issue.
>
> And that our implementation is in a source transparent form that
> allows updates easily from the upstream source.
>
> If we can't get relicense permission, I think we have to rewrite the
> BSD-4 code and provide compatible versions. :(
>

As of now, this seems to be the only option but let's hope for someone
to come up with a better approach or get the license relaxed.

Thanks,
Niteesh


>
>> Thanks,
>> Niteesh.
>> _______________________________________________
>> devel mailing list
>> devel at rtems.org
>> http://lists.rtems.org/mailman/listinfo/devel
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.rtems.org/pipermail/devel/attachments/20200801/65940fea/attachment.html>