Re: Q: ext2fs on other OS's

Peter van Sebille (peter@yipton.demon.co.uk)
Thu, 18 Mar 1999 20:31:59 +0100


"Theodore Y. Ts'o" <tytso@MIT.EDU> wrote:
> Part of the problem is that in order to build an installable filesystem
> for Windows NT, you need to get the Microsoft IFS SDK, which is horribly
> expensive (approx USD $1000). So an Open Source project is pretty hard;
> you wouldn't be able to recompile from sources without paying $1000 to
> Microsoft.

Hi,

Interesting dicussion, as I'm working on a propriety NT FSD for ext2fs
as well. I'm constantly struggling with understanding the limitations
of lisences such as GPL. Is Open Source the same? If so, how can you
distribute source as Open Source lisence if you need a commercial
(i.e., non-GPLed) KIT (such as the IFS kit) ?

Another thing I don't quite understand is the following.
I'm trying to port Theodore's ext2fs library + e2fsck as an native
NT application (which is different from a normal WIN32 application,
as only such native NT application can run early on in the system
to check file systems). Since this is derived work, I must release
it as GPL (fine by me). The problem I'm having is that this application
must link against ntddll.dll (part of a normal NT distribution), but
its ntdll.lib (needed for linking) is _only_ included in the DKK.
Am I allowed to distribute this NT e2fsck work as GPL if the user
can't link the app without the DDK; or should I find a workaround
for this ?

cheers,
Peter

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