binutils

[Jerry]

On Sat, 10 Oct 2009 10:35:01 -0700
Chuck Swiger (cswiger at mac.com) replied:

>On Oct 10, 2009, at 9:34 AM, Jerry wrote:
>> On Sat, 10 Oct 2009 10:53:35 -0400
>> Lowell Gilbert (freebsd-questions-local at be-well.ilk.org) replied:
>>> Unfortunately, it's under an unacceptable license.
>>
>> I was not aware of that. What is the problem?
>
>Somewhere around binutils-2.17, it switched to using GPLv3.
>
>> Perhaps, if it is not all
>> ready available, the FreeBSD developers can devise some directive to
>> place in the '/etc/make.conf' file that would force the use of the
>> 'port' version instead if it was available in a fashion similar to  
>> what
>> is done with OpenSSL; i.e. "WITH_OPENSSL_PORT=yes". Perhaps,
>> "WITH_BINUTILS_PORT=yes".
>
>That's not a bad idea, although you can likely export PREFIX=/usr and  
>install the binutils port, and get the desired result.

The only problem with that is that it would get over written when
updating 'world'. I am not sure if a user could exclude binutils from
being installed when building world. Nor, am I certain that it would
not cause a problem somewhere down the line. I don't like messing with
system files.

In any case, the FreeBSD developers are going to eventually develop a
working relationship with software written using the GPLv3 license.

-- 
Jerry
gesbbb at yahoo.com

A widow is more sought after than an old maid of the same age.

	Addison