1 All files in this subtree are licensed under the terms and conditions
2 of the GNU General Public License version 2.
4 Reproduced below is the GPL v2, and Linus's clarifying statement from
5 the Linux kernel source code:
7 ----------------------------------------
9 NOTE! This copyright does *not* cover user programs that use kernel
10 services by normal system calls - this is merely considered normal use
11 of the kernel, and does *not* fall under the heading of "derived work".
12 Also note that the GPL below is copyrighted by the Free Software
13 Foundation, but the instance of code that it refers to (the Linux
14 kernel) is copyrighted by me and others who actually wrote it.
18 ----------------------------------------
20 GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
23 Copyright (C) 1989, 1991 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
24 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA
25 Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies
26 of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.
30 The licenses for most software are designed to take away your
31 freedom to share and change it. By contrast, the GNU General Public
32 License is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change free
33 software--to make sure the software is free for all its users. This
34 General Public License applies to most of the Free Software
35 Foundation's software and to any other program whose authors commit to
36 using it. (Some other Free Software Foundation software is covered by
37 the GNU Library General Public License instead.) You can apply it to
40 When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not
41 price. Our General Public Licenses are designed to make sure that you
42 have the freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge for
43 this service if you wish), that you receive source code or can get it
44 if you want it, that you can change the software or use pieces of it
45 in new free programs; and that you know you can do these things.
47 To protect your rights, we need to make restrictions that forbid
48 anyone to deny you these rights or to ask you to surrender the rights.
49 These restrictions translate to certain responsibilities for you if you
50 distribute copies of the software, or if you modify it.
52 For example, if you distribute copies of such a program, whether
53 gratis or for a fee, you must give the recipients all the rights that
54 you have. You must make sure that they, too, receive or can get the
55 source code. And you must show them these terms so they know their
58 We protect your rights with two steps: (1) copyright the software, and
59 (2) offer you this license which gives you legal permission to copy,
60 distribute and/or modify the software.
62 Also, for each author's protection and ours, we want to make certain
63 that everyone understands that there is no warranty for this free
64 software. If the software is modified by someone else and passed on, we
65 want its recipients to know that what they have is not the original, so
66 that any problems introduced by others will not reflect on the original
69 Finally, any free program is threatened constantly by software
70 patents. We wish to avoid the danger that redistributors of a free
71 program will individually obtain patent licenses, in effect making the
72 program proprietary. To prevent this, we have made it clear that any
73 patent must be licensed for everyone's free use or not licensed at all.
75 The precise terms and conditions for copying, distribution and
78 GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
79 TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR COPYING, DISTRIBUTION AND MODIFICATION
81 0. This License applies to any program or other work which contains
82 a notice placed by the copyright holder saying it may be distributed
83 under the terms of this General Public License. The "Program", below,
84 refers to any such program or work, and a "work based on the Program"
85 means either the Program or any derivative work under copyright law:
86 that is to say, a work containing the Program or a portion of it,
87 either verbatim or with modifications and/or translated into another
88 language. (Hereinafter, translation is included without limitation in
89 the term "modification".) Each licensee is addressed as "you".
91 Activities other than copying, distribution and modification are not
92 covered by this License; they are outside its scope. The act of
93 running the Program is not restricted, and the output from the Program
94 is covered only if its contents constitute a work based on the
95 Program (independent of having been made by running the Program).
96 Whether that is true depends on what the Program does.
98 1. You may copy and distribute verbatim copies of the Program's
99 source code as you receive it, in any medium, provided that you
100 conspicuously and appropriately publish on each copy an appropriate
101 copyright notice and disclaimer of warranty; keep intact all the
102 notices that refer to this License and to the absence of any warranty;
103 and give any other recipients of the Program a copy of this License
104 along with the Program.
106 You may charge a fee for the physical act of transferring a copy, and
107 you may at your option offer warranty protection in exchange for a fee.
109 2. You may modify your copy or copies of the Program or any portion
110 of it, thus forming a work based on the Program, and copy and
111 distribute such modifications or work under the terms of Section 1
112 above, provided that you also meet all of these conditions:
114 a) You must cause the modified files to carry prominent notices
115 stating that you changed the files and the date of any change.
117 b) You must cause any work that you distribute or publish, that in
118 whole or in part contains or is derived from the Program or any
119 part thereof, to be licensed as a whole at no charge to all third
120 parties under the terms of this License.
122 c) If the modified program normally reads commands interactively
123 when run, you must cause it, when started running for such
124 interactive use in the most ordinary way, to print or display an
125 announcement including an appropriate copyright notice and a
126 notice that there is no warranty (or else, saying that you provide
127 a warranty) and that users may redistribute the program under
128 these conditions, and telling the user how to view a copy of this
129 License. (Exception: if the Program itself is interactive but
130 does not normally print such an announcement, your work based on
131 the Program is not required to print an announcement.)
133 These requirements apply to the modified work as a whole. If
134 identifiable sections of that work are not derived from the Program,
135 and can be reasonably considered independent and separate works in
136 themselves, then this License, and its terms, do not apply to those
137 sections when you distribute them as separate works. But when you
138 distribute the same sections as part of a whole which is a work based
139 on the Program, the distribution of the whole must be on the terms of
140 this License, whose permissions for other licensees extend to the
141 entire whole, and thus to each and every part regardless of who wrote it.
143 Thus, it is not the intent of this section to claim rights or contest
144 your rights to work written entirely by you; rather, the intent is to
145 exercise the right to control the distribution of derivative or
146 collective works based on the Program.
148 In addition, mere aggregation of another work not based on the Program
149 with the Program (or with a work based on the Program) on a volume of
150 a storage or distribution medium does not bring the other work under
151 the scope of this License.
153 3. You may copy and distribute the Program (or a work based on it,
154 under Section 2) in object code or executable form under the terms of
155 Sections 1 and 2 above provided that you also do one of the following:
157 a) Accompany it with the complete corresponding machine-readable
158 source code, which must be distributed under the terms of Sections
159 1 and 2 above on a medium customarily used for software interchange; or,
161 b) Accompany it with a written offer, valid for at least three
162 years, to give any third party, for a charge no more than your
163 cost of physically performing source distribution, a complete
164 machine-readable copy of the corresponding source code, to be
165 distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium
166 customarily used for software interchange; or,
168 c) Accompany it with the information you received as to the offer
169 to distribute corresponding source code. (This alternative is
170 allowed only for noncommercial distribution and only if you
171 received the program in object code or executable form with such
172 an offer, in accord with Subsection b above.)
174 The source code for a work means the preferred form of the work for
175 making modifications to it. For an executable work, complete source
176 code means all the source code for all modules it contains, plus any
177 associated interface definition files, plus the scripts used to
178 control compilation and installation of the executable. However, as a
179 special exception, the source code distributed need not include
180 anything that is normally distributed (in either source or binary
181 form) with the major components (compiler, kernel, and so on) of the
182 operating system on which the executable runs, unless that component
183 itself accompanies the executable.
185 If distribution of executable or object code is made by offering
186 access to copy from a designated place, then offering equivalent
187 access to copy the source code from the same place counts as
188 distribution of the source code, even though third parties are not
189 compelled to copy the source along with the object code.
191 4. You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Program
192 except as expressly provided under this License. Any attempt
193 otherwise to copy, modify, sublicense or distribute the Program is
194 void, and will automatically terminate your rights under this License.
195 However, parties who have received copies, or rights, from you under
196 this License will not have their licenses terminated so long as such
197 parties remain in full compliance.
199 5. You are not required to accept this License, since you have not
200 signed it. However, nothing else grants you permission to modify or
201 distribute the Program or its derivative works. These actions are
202 prohibited by law if you do not accept this License. Therefore, by
203 modifying or distributing the Program (or any work based on the
204 Program), you indicate your acceptance of this License to do so, and
205 all its terms and conditions for copying, distributing or modifying
206 the Program or works based on it.
208 6. Each time you redistribute the Program (or any work based on the
209 Program), the recipient automatically receives a license from the
210 original licensor to copy, distribute or modify the Program subject to
211 these terms and conditions. You may not impose any further
212 restrictions on the recipients' exercise of the rights granted herein.
213 You are not responsible for enforcing compliance by third parties to
216 7. If, as a consequence of a court judgment or allegation of patent
217 infringement or for any other reason (not limited to patent issues),
218 conditions are imposed on you (whether by court order, agreement or
219 otherwise) that contradict the conditions of this License, they do not
220 excuse you from the conditions of this License. If you cannot
221 distribute so as to satisfy simultaneously your obligations under this
222 License and any other pertinent obligations, then as a consequence you
223 may not distribute the Program at all. For example, if a patent
224 license would not permit royalty-free redistribution of the Program by
225 all those who receive copies directly or indirectly through you, then
226 the only way you could satisfy both it and this License would be to
227 refrain entirely from distribution of the Program.
229 If any portion of this section is held invalid or unenforceable under
230 any particular circumstance, the balance of the section is intended to
231 apply and the section as a whole is intended to apply in other
234 It is not the purpose of this section to induce you to infringe any
235 patents or other property right claims or to contest validity of any
236 such claims; this section has the sole purpose of protecting the
237 integrity of the free software distribution system, which is
238 implemented by public license practices. Many people have made
239 generous contributions to the wide range of software distributed
240 through that system in reliance on consistent application of that
241 system; it is up to the author/donor to decide if he or she is willing
242 to distribute software through any other system and a licensee cannot
245 This section is intended to make thoroughly clear what is believed to
246 be a consequence of the rest of this License.
248 8. If the distribution and/or use of the Program is restricted in
249 certain countries either by patents or by copyrighted interfaces, the
250 original copyright holder who places the Program under this License
251 may add an explicit geographical distribution limitation excluding
252 those countries, so that distribution is permitted only in or among
253 countries not thus excluded. In such case, this License incorporates
254 the limitation as if written in the body of this License.
256 9. The Free Software Foundation may publish revised and/or new versions
257 of the General Public License from time to time. Such new versions will
258 be similar in spirit to the present version, but may differ in detail to
259 address new problems or concerns.
261 Each version is given a distinguishing version number. If the Program
262 specifies a version number of this License which applies to it and "any
263 later version", you have the option of following the terms and conditions
264 either of that version or of any later version published by the Free
265 Software Foundation. If the Program does not specify a version number of
266 this License, you may choose any version ever published by the Free Software
269 10. If you wish to incorporate parts of the Program into other free
270 programs whose distribution conditions are different, write to the author
271 to ask for permission. For software which is copyrighted by the Free
272 Software Foundation, write to the Free Software Foundation; we sometimes
273 make exceptions for this. Our decision will be guided by the two goals
274 of preserving the free status of all derivatives of our free software and
275 of promoting the sharing and reuse of software generally.
279 11. BECAUSE THE PROGRAM IS LICENSED FREE OF CHARGE, THERE IS NO WARRANTY
280 FOR THE PROGRAM, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW. EXCEPT WHEN
281 OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES
282 PROVIDE THE PROGRAM "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED
283 OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
284 MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS
285 TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE
286 PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING,
287 REPAIR OR CORRECTION.
289 12. IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN WRITING
290 WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MAY MODIFY AND/OR
291 REDISTRIBUTE THE PROGRAM AS PERMITTED ABOVE, BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES,
292 INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING
293 OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAM (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED
294 TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY
295 YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE PROGRAM TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER
296 PROGRAMS), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE
297 POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
299 END OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS
301 How to Apply These Terms to Your New Programs
303 If you develop a new program, and you want it to be of the greatest
304 possible use to the public, the best way to achieve this is to make it
305 free software which everyone can redistribute and change under these terms.
307 To do so, attach the following notices to the program. It is safest
308 to attach them to the start of each source file to most effectively
309 convey the exclusion of warranty; and each file should have at least
310 the "copyright" line and a pointer to where the full notice is found.
312 <one line to give the program's name and a brief idea of what it does.>
313 Copyright (C) 19yy <name of author>
315 This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
316 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
317 the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
318 (at your option) any later version.
320 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
321 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
322 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
323 GNU General Public License for more details.
325 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
326 along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
327 Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA
330 Also add information on how to contact you by electronic and paper mail.
332 If the program is interactive, make it output a short notice like this
333 when it starts in an interactive mode:
335 Gnomovision version 69, Copyright (C) 19yy name of author
336 Gnomovision comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details type `show w'.
337 This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it
338 under certain conditions; type `show c' for details.
340 The hypothetical commands `show w' and `show c' should show the appropriate
341 parts of the General Public License. Of course, the commands you use may
342 be called something other than `show w' and `show c'; they could even be
343 mouse-clicks or menu items--whatever suits your program.
345 You should also get your employer (if you work as a programmer) or your
346 school, if any, to sign a "copyright disclaimer" for the program, if
347 necessary. Here is a sample; alter the names:
349 Yoyodyne, Inc., hereby disclaims all copyright interest in the program
350 `Gnomovision' (which makes passes at compilers) written by James Hacker.
352 <signature of Ty Coon>, 1 April 1989
353 Ty Coon, President of Vice
355 This General Public License does not permit incorporating your program into
356 proprietary programs. If your program is a subroutine library, you may
357 consider it more useful to permit linking proprietary applications with the
358 library. If this is what you want to do, use the GNU Library General
359 Public License instead of this License.