[Nagiosplug-devel] Plugin licensing

[Thomas Guyot-Sionnest]

On 19/07/07 04:47 AM, Ton Voon wrote:
> 
> Sean's response was accurate, from my point of view, so I've stuck it  
> on our website:
> 
> http://nagiosplugins.org/index.php? 
> option=com_easyfaq&task=view&id=12&Itemid=29&mosmsg=Changes+to+item 
> +saved
> 
> Any comments?

My POV is pretty much the same... I even roughly replied the same thing
(not looking at headers though) but forgot to send it! :(

> I was thinking that when I create a new C plugin, I usually copy an  
> existing one and strip out everything except the getopt handling and  
> the help stuff. Then the new bits are just the communication with the  
> external system. However, under the definitions above, this would  
> mean it is a derived work, so would have to be GPL'd.
> 
> Then I was thinking, maybe we could provide a library with headers  
> and have that under LGPL, but we use a lot of gnulib code (getopt  
> handling, internationalisation) which is GPL'd, not LGPL'd, so our  
> executable would have to be GPL'd.
> 
> If you wanted to protect some intellectual property, you'd have to  
> make a library which returned all the data you wanted, and then  
> create a plugin which is GPL'd, but only uses the library API to get  
> at the information.
> 
> Alternatively, to make a plugin NOT under GPL, you'd have to write it  
> from scratch without any external libraries which are GPL'd, which is  
> certainly possible, though a bit more work.
> 
> Remember, the aim of the Free Software Foundation is to make all  
> software free.

I agree on this one and for that reason I wouldn't push for a LGPL
library and BSD or public-domain plugin template. I personally don't see
any benefit in giving out the tools to write proprietary Nagios plugins.

Thomas