[Bug-gnulib] Re: Relicense exit.h under LGPL?

[Simon Josefsson]

Bruno Haible <address@hidden> writes:

> Simon Josefsson wrote:
>> The exit.h is useful together with error; it is clearer to write:
>>
>>      error (EXIT_FAILURE, 0, "Could not list tickets: %s",
>>             shishi_strerror (rc));
>
> What's the point of using EXIT_FAILURE in a library? Usually it's the
> application author, not the library author, who decides how to react
> about an error that occurs in library code.

As Paul explained, I don't really need exit.h, but here is the
background: libidn is LGPL, but the command line interface is GPL.
Currently, gnulib-tool doesn't support two gnulib directories in one
project without having two different configure.ac (which is what I use
in gsasl), so because I had gl_LGPL in configure.ac, importing the
exit module failed.

However, I have now realized it is a bad idea to use the same gnulib
library for both the library and the command line application.  The
command line application will want to use, e.g., progname and thus
need to define 'char *program_name', but if the library link with the
same gnulib library, there will be linker errors.

I have the same problem in GnuTLS too.  I think the proper solution is
to fix gnulib-tool --import, to support several gnulib instantiations
from the same configure.ac.  Something like:

gl_MODULES(strdup xalloc, lgl/, lgl/m4/, LGPL)
gl_MODULES(error progname, gl/, gl/m4/)

Thanks.