Hi,

KatolaZ writes:

> DR D1Rs,
>
> yesterday I was reviewing a new package made by Daniel Abrecht (DPA),
> a little library that implements the sd_journal_* functions by
> redirecting the calls to syslog. The project can be found here:
>
> https://git.devuan.org/DPA/sd_journal_shim
>
> This would allow to avoid to link against libsystemd0 if the program
> wants just to use systemd logging facilities.
>
> I was about to move it under devuan-packages to build it for
> experimental, but I noticed that the License (an almost regular
> Expat/MIT license, for the rest) contained an additional clause:
>
> "This software shall not be used to encourage others to use the
> systemd journal API, or any of it's sd_journal_* functions."
>
> so I immediately held my horses. My main complaint here is that this
> clause makes the software non compliant with freedom 0 (the freedom to
> use the software for whatever aim and task), so technically speaking
> the package is not free-software, and cannot go in Devuan/main. Aside
> from that, that clause makes the library GPL-incompatible, which would
> undermine the good intentions of DPA. making the library practically
> useless (unless the programs linking it are not GPL).

As others have pointed out, send DPA a polite message pointing out that
that clause makes it impossible for you to use his software in a
distribution that created with the explicit aim to get rid of systemd.
Politely ask if the license could be modified.

You might find some people are actually sensible ;-)

> In a word, I would not agree to include this package in Devuan/main,
> unless that clause is removed. But just for the sake of clarity (and
> because I think this can create a nasty precedent) I thought it was
> good to ask here.

If the clause remains, the library should stay out of Devuan/main no
matter how badly you'd want to use it. Removing the offending clause or
relicensing (dual licensing?) to a Free Software license is the only
acceptable way to get this into Devuan/main.

A MIT or BSD-3-clause license would probably be most widely compatible.

> Please, please, please: let's avoid to tranform this in a flame. The
> thing is that Devuan/main should include only free-software, and that
> clause makes the package non-compliant with the basic freedom 0. We
> would like suggestions as of whether the clause should be removed or
> the package should go in Devuan/non-free (I can't see any other5B
> alternative).

Hope this helps,
--
Olaf Meeuwissen, LPIC-2            FSF Associate Member since 2004-01-27
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