The Guix (almost) full-source bootstrap

Posted May 3, 2023 21:18 UTC (Wed) by JoeBuck (subscriber, #2330)
In reply to: The Guix (almost) full-source bootstrap by IanKelling
Parent article: The Guix (almost) full-source bootstrap

While reducing the amount of trusted code is great, this isn't a GPL requirement in any way. The GPL has an exception; from the GPL2 text:

However, as a special exception, the source code distributed need not include anything that is normally distributed (in either source or binary form) with the major components (compiler, kernel, and so on) of the operating system on which the executable runs, unless that component itself accompanies the executable.

So artifacts produced by a proprietary compiler or static library routines were allowed. This was a compromise that had to made to make it legal to destribute GCC binaries for proprietary operating systems.

The Guix (almost) full-source bootstrap

Posted May 5, 2023 2:21 UTC (Fri) by IanKelling (subscriber, #89418) [Link]

I'm happy that you quoted a relevant section of the GPLv2, but I don't think it invalidates the point I was making (perhaps I wasn't clear). Program 1 is GPL, requires Program 2 to build it. Even if Program 2 is "normally distributed", if Program 2 is also GPL then it gets distributed and the GPL applies to it independently. Hence a chain. But, source distribution is not just a GPL requirement, it is a principle. Thus Guix is, in a way, advancing a frontier of software freedom.