[lug] LGPL question

[Michael J. Hammel]

On Tue, 2003-03-04 at 17:43, Jeffrey Siegal wrote:
> Michael J. Hammel wrote:
> > Something that I can never remember the rules to:
> > 
> > Can you link a static library that is LGPL to a non-free program without
> > the license "infecting" the non-free program?  Does the library have to
> > be shared in order for the program to be linked to a LGPL library (I
> > know doing this with a shared library works fine - that's why libc can
> > be used with proprietary apps)?  If it must be a shared library, can you
> > dlopen() an LGPL static library from within a non-free program without
> > the LGPL affecting that program?
> 
> You can static link but you must then provide the pre-linked object for 
> the program so someone can modify the library and relink it with your 
> program.  dlopen() is fine.

dlopen() would be the way to go if I had to use shared libraries because
I can't guarantee the end user will have root access, so I'd need to
install the shared library in a place close to the program binary.

> Remember, if you redistribute the LGPLed library itself, you must 
> *always* either include the source code for it or include an offer to 
> obtain the source code.

Yeah, that's a given.  I'm just trying to determine what the rules are
for linking and what situations don't require me to redistribute the
program code too.

-- 
Michael J. Hammel                               The Graphics Muse 
mjhammel at graphics-muse.org                      http://www.graphics-muse.com
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