Linking restrictions and shared libraries

Dr. David Gilbert gilbertd at treblig.org
Mon Mar 12 12:18:42 UTC 2001


Hi,
  I am after understanding the linking restrictions of open source
licenses; in particular the GPL (but other discussion is welcome).

I can obviously understand that a static link copies parts of the open
source library into the result and thus that result must conform with the
license of the library.

What I am unclear of is shared libraries; is there something actually
copied into the result as part of the linking stage?  If I was to rewrite
a header for a GPL library so that I didn't make use of the GPLd header
could I then shared link it into a commercial app?

Can I write a commercial app which is not linked with a GPL library but
opens it with dlopen at run time?

Thanks in advance,

Dave



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