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1title: Code reuse
2parent: FAQ
3---
4
5# Can I use Nagios Plugins in my project?
6
7Firstly, there is a distinction between a Nagios plugin and plugins from the
8Nagios Plugins project.
9
10Although Nagios (the system) is licensed under the GPL, plugins are executed
11in their own environment, so they [do not fall][aggregation] under the "viral"
12aspect of the GPL. Therefore, any plugin written for use by Nagios can be
13under any license the copyright holder selects.
14
15However, the plugins contained within the Nagios Plugins project are
16distributed under the [GPL][gpl]. If you distribute an application that
17includes the Nagios Plugins (modified or not), you are required to distribute
18a copy of the source code for the plugins under the terms of the GPL,
19regardless of the licensing for the rest of the application.
20
21If you write a plugin which is a derivative work from code of the Nagios
22Plugins project, then your plugin must also be licensed under the GPL,
23although you own the copyright for your modified portions.
24
25*Derivative work* usually includes:
26
27* modified versions of the plugins
28* other software that contains code (modified or not) copied from the plugins
29* other software that `#include`s header files from the plugins
30* other software that has linked against library files from the plugins
31
32and does not usually include:
33
34* other software that parses the output of a plugin run from the command line,
35 exit status, etc.
36* software that provides a "wrapper" for command line execution of the plugin
37* software that uses status codes and other values which are in the header
38 files, but also described in the documentation (though not including or
39 linking to the source)
40
41[aggregation]: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#MereAggregation "GPL FAQ: Mere Aggregation"
42[gpl]: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html "GPLv3"
43
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