Re: License compliance when redistributing images built with 'guix system'.

[Denis 'GNUtoo' Carikli]

On Wed, 17 Jul 2024 19:26:22 +0200
Simon Tournier <zimon.toutoune@gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi Denis,
Hi,

> Well, I do not see any reply to this message.  So even very late. :-)
Thanks a lot.

> > But for redistributing complete images built with guix system image,
> > like a VM image for instance, I'm unsure how to do it and I was
> > wondering if there is a standard way to do that.
> 
> Well, I am not sure to get if you speak about the source or about the
> binary of this image?
The use case is that if I distribute a bootable system image made with
Guix (like a VM image for instance), I'd like an easy way of complying
with all the free software licenses to avoid any legal risks.

Since the image contains many binaries I guess an easy way to comply with
licenses like the GPLv2 could be to provide like a tarball with inside
all the source code corresponding to the binaries inside the VM image.
If there is also extra source code (compilers, etc) it's probably not a
big issue.

As I understand it's easier for distributions like Guix or even more
classical distributions to comply because they typically provide source
code, packages and images from the same servers.

But as a user I'd like to avoid building everything myself, and I'd
like to redistribute some images I make without any legal risks.

> From your configuration file, you could extract the manifest file
> which includes all the packages and based on that you could apply some
> “sources=transitive” options.
Thanks. I think this could be a good option.

Denis.

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