[U-Boot-Users] [RFC] recommendations for a proprietary POST testcase

[Wolfgang Denk]

In message <8E8BB316C604E94AA019A54D0A5A82A2018F6899 at dlee13.ent.ti.com> you wrote:
> 
> I am looking at issues in moving from a proprietary diagnostics on a
> platform we have, to a solution using U-Boot's POST infrastructure. 

I'm afraid this doesn't work.

I understand  that  by  "proprietary"  you  mean  non-GPL.  The  only
explicit  exception  that  is  (and  will)  be  allowed for U-boot is
standalone applications. Such applications  can  use  a  well-defined
interface  to  U-Boot  which  eports  some  basic services, but it is
definitely not intended to allow you more extensive use of the U-Boot
infrastructure. We will not allow for any kind of masqueraded linking
of non-GPL code against U-Boot.

If you want to use the POST infrastructure for your  own  test  code,
please  add  it  (under  GPL,  of  course) to the U-Boot code. Alter-
natively, you can use a standalone application,  but  this  will  not
have full access to each and every function that exists in U-Boot.

> I am sure many of us here have faced the condition where certain
> peripherals may not become open source due to legal restrictions. In the

Actually, we haven't.

First, peripherals are hardware. They cannot "become open source"
because hardware does not become software. And I see no reason why
even hardware which requires a strict NDA to get access to the
documentation should not be supported by Free Software drivers.

> case of POST support, the API set is not exported for a U-Boot
> standalone application to use. Writing a POST code linked within U-Boot

Correct, and we will not export any such internal APIs for standalone
applications. That would undermine the whole philosophy of  the  GPL,
as  it  would  mean  not more or less that providing a way of linking
against GPL code without putting your code under GPL,  too.  This  is
not intended.

> for a proprietary device may have implications of being completely
> linked with U-Boot and subject to GPL-v2 distribution requirements.

Indeed that will be the case. Ich you want to  use  the  POST  infra-
structure  or  similar "internal" functions, please release your code
under GPL, too.

You get so much code for free, please contribute back.

> I wonder if anyone can share their experiences to what folks have done
> in such cases.

We have always released our code under GPL. It's that simple.

Best regards,

Wolfgang Denk

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