Re: Question About GNU General Public License

[David Kastrup]

Alexander Terekhov <terekhov@web.de> writes:

> David Kastrup wrote:
> [...]
> > > > Linking, whether static or dynamic, changes the program
> > >
> > > It doesn't change the program.
> > 
> > You better clue yourself in about what linking does.  It resolves
> > symbols.
> 
> That doesn't change the program.

Not the original, but the copy (linked in memory or on disk).  That it
is a copy that is linked and that you retain the original somewhere
else does not mean that the copy is not changed by entering the memory
addresses of the linked library.

> Go read the copyright law defintion of what the "computer program"
> is.
>
> > > > and can't be undone.
> > >
> > > It can be undone.
> > 
> > Not when we are talking about the resolution to a running image
> > because the fixup chains are lost in the process of linking.
> 
> In my "CEEDUMPS" (C/C++ on mainframe) nothing is lost.

We are not talking about "CEEDUMPS" but on final linking in general.
In the case of Linux, of ELF files.

> > > > In contrast to calling dlopen, which can be undone with
> > > > dlclose.
> > >
> > > If you have a map you can "undo" static linking.
> > 
> > Then there should be some command line utility that can do the job,
> > given appropriate options.  How do you unlink statically linked
> > binaries again?
> 
> Write a command utility and patch gcc if you need it. I don't need
> it.

You'd really make an impressive spectacle of yourself in court.

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum