Star & FreeBSD

[Rahul Siddharthan]

Joerg Schilling <schilling at fokus.fraunhofer.de> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Last night, I did convert star from a GPL tool into a CDDL
> tool. This now makes star compliant with the BSD philosophy.
>
> Is there a chance to have star integrated into FreeBSD?

As others have noted, CDDL != BSD licence and the base system
already has a BSD-licensed tar.

Besides, I think you really don't want it in the base system:
it's much better to leave it in the ports, because then you can
maintain it yourself and keep it just the way you like it, whereas
the tar in the base system has to fit in with larger project goals
(like working with pkgtools).

You are, of course, the author of excellent tools like cdrecord,
which many people use on FreeBSD too, so I have no doubt star is
very good software.  However, you also have a reputation of not
working well with Linux kernel developers or distribution
packagers, to the point of once inserting a clause (in
violation of the GPL) targetting SuSE, and also of refusing to
integrate others' patches offering useful functionality (like DVD
burning)[1].  So base system could mean trouble.  Even today, there
are few good alternatives to cdrecord in linux-land, so you can get
away with some "attitude" there, but star is a different matter.

Rahul

[1] See eg. http://lwn.net/Articles/97469/