Re: [PATCH 2/3] UIO: Documentation

From: Alan Cox
Date: Thu Aug 09 2007 - 10:03:27 EST


O> I disagree. UIO is a documented kernel<->userspace interface, like sysfs
> or proc. Using your argument, we would also have to say that a userspace
> software that is unusable without sysfs is a derived work of the kernel.
> But IANAL, tell me if I missed an important point.

It depends how closely the bits are tied. As far as I can ascertain there
is no simple yes/no answer and whether you can do so depends a great deal
upon how tightly bound the two are (consider the difference between the
intel ipw daemon which is integrated very tightly into the old ipw3945
driver and a script monitoring CPU temperature via a sysfs file)

> > so the
> > documentation is giving poor advice however
>
> I guess you mean this sentence:
>
> "if you need to keep some parts of your driver closed source, you can do so
> without violating the GPL license on the kernel."
>
> What would you write instead?

I would simply remove the statement. Leave it to the lawyers.

Alan
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