#838244 hurd: license incompatibility between ext2fs (GPLv2-only) and libparted (GPLv3-or-later)

Package:
hurd
Source:
hurd
Submitter:
Kalle Olavi Niemitalo
Date:
2024-10-19 16:33:01 UTC
Severity:
serious
#838244#5
Date:
2016-09-18 22:29:17 UTC
From:
To:
The ext2fs translator contains GPLv2-only code copied from Linux,
but it is linked (through libstore) with libparted, which is
GPLv3-or-later since 2007.  This combination violates at least
one of the licenses.  The problem is clearest in ext2fs.static
but FSF doctrine is it applies to dynamic linking as well.

One of the Hurd developers acknowledged in August 2007 that
ext2fs in the Hurd contains GPLv2-only code:
https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-hurd/2007-08/msg00073.html

The "BSD-licensed liblabel" was suggested as a replacement of
libparted, on the #hurd IRC channel on 2016-09-15.
Until that is implemented, the partition-table support in
libstore could be disabled altogether, because GNU Mach currently
provides a named device for each partition.
#838244#10
Date:
2016-09-18 22:42:57 UTC
From:
To:
Kalle Olavi Niemitalo, on Mon 19 Sep 2016 01:29:17 +0300, wrote:

But the installer does not use it, for flexibility.

But storeio can be used as an intermediate between the two.

But what is actually linked against libparted is libstoreio, which is
shared between storeio and ext2fs. So we'd need two different
libstoreio, one with parted support, the other without.

Samuel
#838244#15
Date:
2016-09-18 23:29:20 UTC
From:
To:
Samuel Thibault <sthibault@debian.org> writes:

"storeio --store-type=part 1:device:hd0" apparently supports
file_get_storage_info and reports the partition boundaries there,
so the I/O would not have to go through the storeio translator.

libstore/encode.c (too_big) has a comment saying "The RPC
protocol uses 32-bit off_t's" but that is false since 2002.
#838244#20
Date:
2016-09-18 23:40:28 UTC
From:
To:
Kalle Olavi Niemitalo, on Mon 19 Sep 2016 02:29:20 +0300, wrote:

Yes, I just meant as user-point-of-view intermediate.

Samuel
#838244#25
Date:
2024-09-20 06:01:35 UTC
From:
To:
Hi Samuel and Kalle,

I am looking at old rc bugs in order to clean up the archive and ran
into this bug.

Given that about eight years have passed, would either of you be kind
enough to check whether there still is a license incompatibility? If
not, it feels unlikely that this will resolve itself soon. Would it make
sense to move hurd into the contrib section as a means of acknowledging
the license problem? Do you see another way of making forward progress
here?

Helmut
#838244#30
Date:
2024-10-19 16:29:02 UTC
From:
To:
Hello,

Helmut Grohne, le ven. 20 sept. 2024 08:01:35 +0200, a ecrit:

It is still there, yes.

It's a matter of somebody taking up the task. That could happen within
like a week if somebody works on it.

That would make things very complex for us, bringing way more work to
make that working than just working on the actual issue.

Getting somebody to pick up the task.

Samuel