[zfs-discuss] ZFS committed to the FreeBSD base.

Tue Apr 10 09:25:55 UTC 2007

Ivan Voras wrote:
> Wilko Bulte wrote:
>> On Sat, Apr 07, 2007 at 12:54:57PM +0200, Jorn Argelo wrote..
>>> Rich Teer wrote:
>>>> This is fantastic news!  At the risk of raking over ye olde arguments,
>>>> as the old saying goes: "Dual licensing?  We don't need no stinkeen
>>>> dual licensing!".  :-)
>>>>
>>>>  
>>> First of all, thanks a lot for all the hard work of both the FreeBSD 
>>> developers as the ZFS developers. I can't wait to give it a go.
>>>
>>> That leads me to one question though: Why is *BSD able to bring it 
>>> into the OS as where Linux has licensing problems with the CDDL? 
>>> AFAIK Linux users can only run it in userland mode and not in kernel 
>>> mode because of the licenses.
>>
>> My guess(!) is that they do not want non-GPL-ed code in the standard 
>> kernel.
>
> Sorry if I'm reiterating what someone maybe already explained, but I 
> don't see it on the lists I read:
>
> FreeBSD can include GPL'ed code due to a "technicality" (literally): 
> As long as the code is in a separate kernel module and not in the 
> default shipped GENERIC kernel, it's considered "bundled" and not a 
> part of the kernel. As soon as the user loads a GPLed kernel module, 
> presto-changeo! his kernel "automagically" becomes GPLed. I believe 
> the same holds for CDDL. (I have no idea how to resolve the licensing 
> issues of a kernel with both GPL and CDDL parts :) ). This is less 
> inconvenient than it seems since kernel modules can be (pre)loaded at 
> the same

I had some discussion with folks at Sun (indirectly via another guy) 
while they were in the process of making the CDDL: They said: 
Modifications to CDDL code must be under CDDL. This means if you change 
a CDDLed file, your changes are CDDL. If you add a line to the CDDL code 
that calls a function in another, new file, you're free to put that 
other file under any license as long as there is a compatibility the 
other way 'round - you probably cannot put that file under GPL, but you 
can put it under BSD. The new file is not a modification of the CDDLed code.

harti