Discussion:
[nxlog-ce-users] Compiling nxlog for Windows
Main, Chris
2013-09-26 11:23:40 UTC
Permalink
> Hi,
>
> There is a zipped up msys environment on the sourceforge downloads page
> containing all dependencies precompiled.
> This may serve as an example for setting up your own if you want to do
> that.
>
> Regards,
> Botond

I can't find this on the sourceforge downloads page. Where exactly is it?

Chris Main


This email and any files transmitted with it may be confidential, legally privileged and protected in law and are intended solely for the use of the individual to whom it is addressed. Any view or opinions presented are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of ViaSat. If you have received this Email in error please contact the sender by return and confirm that its contents have been destroyed without further distribution or disclosure. Please email ***@viasat.uk.com<mailto:***@viasat.uk.com> with any questions relating to this disclaimer.

ViaSat has Registered Offices at Sandford Lane, Wareham, Dorset BH20 4DY. The company is registered in England and Wales under no: 3007498.
Main, Chris
2013-09-27 14:54:09 UTC
Permalink
I've tried quite hard to get this working but have only got as far as getting configure to run to completion without error.

What I have done is:

Install MinGW with:
mingw-developer-toolkit
mingw32-base

Additionally install in MinGW:
mingw32_expat bin
mingw32-libexpat dev
mingw32-libexpat dll
msys-libopenssl dev

Set MSYS CPATH environment variable to C:\mingw\msys\1.0\include
Set MSYS LIBRARY_PATH environment variable to C:\mingw\msys\1.0\lib

Download the Unix Source for Apache Portable Runtime (apr-1.4.8.tar.gz)
uncompress
extract
./configure
make
make install

Add /usr/local/apr/bin to the PATH in /etc/profile

Download the source code for Perl Compatible Regular Expression (pcre-8.33.tar.gz)
uncompress
extract
./configure --prefix=/mingw --enable-pcre16 --enable-pcre32 --enable-unicode-properties --enable-newline-is-any --disable-cpp
make
make install

Download the source code for nxlog (nxlog-ce-2.5.1089.tar.gz)
uncompress
extract
./configure

make then fails with many compilation errors, most of them "error: unknown type name 'boolean'"

I would really like a definitive set of build instructions, which I believe are supposed to be provided under the terms of the LGPL and GPL.

Chris Main

-----Original Message-----
From: Botond Botyanszki [mailto:***@gmail.com] On Behalf Of Botond Botyanszki
Sent: 27 September 2013 09:54
To: Main, Chris
Subject: Re: [nxlog-ce-users] Compiling nxlog for Windows

Hi,

The build system is gnu style using autotools and gcc. On windows it needs mingw and msys to be able to run configure && make.

Regards,
Botond


On Thu, 26 Sep 2013 12:32:56 +0000
"Main, Chris" <***@viasat.uk.com> wrote:

> I am currently investigating Windows event log to syslog clients, and it's quite possible that we would need to make some modifications.
>
> In that case, we would need to rebuild the Windows binary from source, and I am trying to understand how we would do that.
>
> Chris Main
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Botond Botyanszki [mailto:***@gmail.com] On Behalf
> Of Botond Botyanszki
> Sent: 26 September 2013 12:34
> To: Main, Chris
> Subject: Re: [nxlog-ce-users] Compiling nxlog for Windows
>
> Hi,
>
> AFAIR this contained some sensitive information and we removed it.
> Is there any reason why the current binary build is not sufficient for you?
>
> Regards,
> Botond
>
> On Thu, 26 Sep 2013 11:23:40 +0000
> "Main, Chris" <***@viasat.uk.com> wrote:
>
> > > Hi,
> > >
> > > There is a zipped up msys environment on the sourceforge downloads
> > > page containing all dependencies precompiled.
> > > This may serve as an example for setting up your own if you want
> > > to do that.
> > >
> > > Regards,
> > > Botond
> >
> > I can't find this on the sourceforge downloads page. Where exactly is it?
> >
> > Chris Main
> >
> >
> > This email and any files transmitted with it may be confidential, legally privileged and protected in law and are intended solely for the use of the individual to whom it is addressed. Any view or opinions presented are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of ViaSat. If you have received this Email in error please contact the sender by return and confirm that its contents have been destroyed without further distribution or disclosure. Please email ***@viasat.uk.com<mailto:***@viasat.uk.com> with any questions relating to this disclaimer.
> >
> > ViaSat has Registered Offices at Sandford Lane, Wareham, Dorset BH20 4DY. The company is registered in England and Wales under no: 3007498.
> >
> > --------------------------------------------------------------------
> > --
> > -------- October Webinars: Code for Performance Free Intel webinars
> > can help you accelerate application performance.
> > Explore tips for MPI, OpenMP, advanced profiling, and more. Get the
> > most from the latest Intel processors and coprocessors. See
> > abstracts and register >
> > http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/clk?id=60133471&iu=/4140/ostg
> > .c lktrk _______________________________________________
> > nxlog-ce-users mailing list
> > nxlog-ce-***@lists.sourceforge.net
> > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/nxlog-ce-users
>
> This email and any files transmitted with it may be confidential, legally privileged and protected in law and are intended solely for the use of the individual to whom it is addressed. Any view or opinions presented are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of ViaSat. If you have received this Email in error please contact the sender by return and confirm that its contents have been destroyed without further distribution or disclosure. Please email ***@viasat.uk.com<mailto:***@viasat.uk.com> with any questions relating to this disclaimer.
>
> ViaSat has Registered Offices at Sandford Lane, Wareham, Dorset BH20 4DY. The company is registered in England and Wales under no: 3007498.

This email and any files transmitted with it may be confidential, legally privileged and protected in law and are intended solely for the use of the individual to whom it is addressed. Any view or opinions presented are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of ViaSat. If you have received this Email in error please contact the sender by return and confirm that its contents have been destroyed without further distribution or disclosure. Please email ***@viasat.uk.com<mailto:***@viasat.uk.com> with any questions relating to this disclaimer.

ViaSat has Registered Offices at Sandford Lane, Wareham, Dorset BH20 4DY. The company is registered in England and Wales under no: 3007498.
Botond Botyanszki
2013-09-27 15:29:17 UTC
Permalink
> I would really like a definitive set of build instructions,
> which I believe are supposed to be provided under the terms
> of the LGPL and GPL.

These licensing terms (GPL+LGPL) were chosen by me and our company to
make available our work and the sources of the nxlog community edition
for free to everybody who wishes to use it.
We could have picked any other license, more restrictive or more liberate.
We could have released it in binary form only (=freeware).

Basically what you are saying is that if you release software under the
GPL/LGPL, then you must provide free support to ensure that the software
builds under all circumstances on all platforms with all versions of its
dependencies.
Think about this once more.

On the other hand, will you contribute the modifications back that you
are trying to do? I bet you won't. Sadly this is what the GPL/LGPL is
actually about.



On Fri, 27 Sep 2013 14:54:09 +0000
"Main, Chris" <***@viasat.uk.com> wrote:

> I've tried quite hard to get this working but have only got as far as getting configure to run to completion without error.
>
> What I have done is:
>
> Install MinGW with:
> mingw-developer-toolkit
> mingw32-base
>
> Additionally install in MinGW:
> mingw32_expat bin
> mingw32-libexpat dev
> mingw32-libexpat dll
> msys-libopenssl dev
>
> Set MSYS CPATH environment variable to C:\mingw\msys\1.0\include
> Set MSYS LIBRARY_PATH environment variable to C:\mingw\msys\1.0\lib
>
> Download the Unix Source for Apache Portable Runtime (apr-1.4.8.tar.gz)
> uncompress
> extract
> ./configure
> make
> make install
>
> Add /usr/local/apr/bin to the PATH in /etc/profile
>
> Download the source code for Perl Compatible Regular Expression (pcre-8.33.tar.gz)
> uncompress
> extract
> ./configure --prefix=/mingw --enable-pcre16 --enable-pcre32 --enable-unicode-properties --enable-newline-is-any --disable-cpp
> make
> make install
>
> Download the source code for nxlog (nxlog-ce-2.5.1089.tar.gz)
> uncompress
> extract
> ./configure
>
> make then fails with many compilation errors, most of them "error: unknown type name 'boolean'"
>
> I would really like a definitive set of build instructions, which I believe are supposed to be provided under the terms of the LGPL and GPL.
>
> Chris Main
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Botond Botyanszki [mailto:***@gmail.com] On Behalf Of Botond Botyanszki
> Sent: 27 September 2013 09:54
> To: Main, Chris
> Subject: Re: [nxlog-ce-users] Compiling nxlog for Windows
>
> Hi,
>
> The build system is gnu style using autotools and gcc. On windows it needs mingw and msys to be able to run configure && make.
>
> Regards,
> Botond
>
>
> On Thu, 26 Sep 2013 12:32:56 +0000
> "Main, Chris" <***@viasat.uk.com> wrote:
>
> > I am currently investigating Windows event log to syslog clients, and it's quite possible that we would need to make some modifications.
> >
> > In that case, we would need to rebuild the Windows binary from source, and I am trying to understand how we would do that.
> >
> > Chris Main
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Botond Botyanszki [mailto:***@gmail.com] On Behalf
> > Of Botond Botyanszki
> > Sent: 26 September 2013 12:34
> > To: Main, Chris
> > Subject: Re: [nxlog-ce-users] Compiling nxlog for Windows
> >
> > Hi,
> >
> > AFAIR this contained some sensitive information and we removed it.
> > Is there any reason why the current binary build is not sufficient for you?
> >
> > Regards,
> > Botond
> >
> > On Thu, 26 Sep 2013 11:23:40 +0000
> > "Main, Chris" <***@viasat.uk.com> wrote:
> >
> > > > Hi,
> > > >
> > > > There is a zipped up msys environment on the sourceforge downloads
> > > > page containing all dependencies precompiled.
> > > > This may serve as an example for setting up your own if you want
> > > > to do that.
> > > >
> > > > Regards,
> > > > Botond
> > >
> > > I can't find this on the sourceforge downloads page. Where exactly is it?
> > >
> > > Chris Main
> > >
> > >
> > > This email and any files transmitted with it may be confidential, legally privileged and protected in law and are intended solely for the use of the individual to whom it is addressed. Any view or opinions presented are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of ViaSat. If you have received this Email in error please contact the sender by return and confirm that its contents have been destroyed without further distribution or disclosure. Please email ***@viasat.uk.com<mailto:***@viasat.uk.com> with any questions relating to this disclaimer.
> > >
> > > ViaSat has Registered Offices at Sandford Lane, Wareham, Dorset BH20 4DY. The company is registered in England and Wales under no: 3007498.
> > >
> > > --------------------------------------------------------------------
> > > --
> > > -------- October Webinars: Code for Performance Free Intel webinars
> > > can help you accelerate application performance.
> > > Explore tips for MPI, OpenMP, advanced profiling, and more. Get the
> > > most from the latest Intel processors and coprocessors. See
> > > abstracts and register >
> > > http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/clk?id=60133471&iu=/4140/ostg
> > > .c lktrk _______________________________________________
> > > nxlog-ce-users mailing list
> > > nxlog-ce-***@lists.sourceforge.net
> > > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/nxlog-ce-users
> >
> > This email and any files transmitted with it may be confidential, legally privileged and protected in law and are intended solely for the use of the individual to whom it is addressed. Any view or opinions presented are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of ViaSat. If you have received this Email in error please contact the sender by return and confirm that its contents have been destroyed without further distribution or disclosure. Please email ***@viasat.uk.com<mailto:***@viasat.uk.com> with any questions relating to this disclaimer.
> >
> > ViaSat has Registered Offices at Sandford Lane, Wareham, Dorset BH20 4DY. The company is registered in England and Wales under no: 3007498.
>
> This email and any files transmitted with it may be confidential, legally privileged and protected in law and are intended solely for the use of the individual to whom it is addressed. Any view or opinions presented are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of ViaSat. If you have received this Email in error please contact the sender by return and confirm that its contents have been destroyed without further distribution or disclosure. Please email ***@viasat.uk.com<mailto:***@viasat.uk.com> with any questions relating to this disclaimer.
>
> ViaSat has Registered Offices at Sandford Lane, Wareham, Dorset BH20 4DY. The company is registered in England and Wales under no: 3007498.
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> October Webinars: Code for Performance
> Free Intel webinars can help you accelerate application performance.
> Explore tips for MPI, OpenMP, advanced profiling, and more. Get the most from
> the latest Intel processors and coprocessors. See abstracts and register >
> http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/clk?id=60133471&iu=/4140/ostg.clktrk
> _______________________________________________
> nxlog-ce-users mailing list
> nxlog-ce-***@lists.sourceforge.net
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/nxlog-ce-users
Main, Chris
2013-10-01 09:17:37 UTC
Permalink
-----Original Message-----
From: Botond Botyanszki [mailto:***@nxlog.org]
Sent: 27 September 2013 16:29
To: 'nxlog-ce-***@lists.sourceforge.net'
Subject: Re: [nxlog-ce-users] Compiling nxlog for Windows

>> I would really like a definitive set of build instructions, which I
>> believe are supposed to be provided under the terms of the LGPL and
>> GPL.

> These licensing terms (GPL+LGPL) were chosen by me and our company to make available our work and the sources of the nxlog community edition for free to everybody who wishes to use it.
> We could have picked any other license, more restrictive or more liberate.
> We could have released it in binary form only (=freeware).

> Basically what you are saying is that if you release software under the GPL/LGPL, then you must provide free support to ensure that the software builds under all circumstances on all platforms with all > versions of its dependencies.
> Think about this once more.

You are correct, you are completely at liberty to choose any license you like for your software, and I respect that.
However, if you do choose to release your software under GPL or LGPL you also place yourself under an obligation to provide build instructions.
This is not what I say, it is what the GPL/LGPL themselves say. I recommend to you "A Practical Guide to GPL Compliance" published by the Software Freedom Law Center:

http://www.softwarefreedom.org/resources/2008/compliance-guide.html

Particularly section 4.2.2 Building the Sources:

"You must provide all information necessary such that someone generally skilled with computer systems could produce a binary similar to the one provided."
"Most importantly, you must provide some sort of roadmap that allows technically sophisticated users to build your software."

So my understanding is that either you should provide build instructions for Windows, or you should release the Windows binary under a different license.
The choice is yours and I respect it.

( You have freedom to provide the build instructions however you like, provided it is at reasonable cost )

> On the other hand, will you contribute the modifications back that you are trying to do? I bet you won't. Sadly this is what the GPL/LGPL is actually about.

Both I personally, and ViaSat as a company, take very seriously our obligations to comply fully with software licenses, and we do not knowingly violate them.
The GPL and LGPL place us under an obligation to make our modifications available, under the same license, to those we distribute the modified software to.
For practical reasons, we also prefer to contribute those modifications back rather than maintain patches ourselves (noting that the originator is under no obligation to accept the modifications).

OK. That is all the legal stuff. Let's get on to the spirit of free software, what it is "actually about", and see if we can get on a bit better.

I didn't come here the first time demanding build instructions, I took the hints you gave and spent several hours trying to figure it out for myself.
I have shared publicly everything that I have learned, in the hope that it may help others who want to try the same thing, but I have had to make some educated guesses along the way and obviously I didn't always guess right. Maybe I chose the wrong version of some dependency? It doesn't have to build with all versions of all dependencies, I just need to know one version for each dependency that it does build with.

I would like to work with you on producing the build instructions. As you can see, I am capable of working out quite a lot for myself, I just need a few more clues. If you don't want the instructions made public then fine, as I have said, that is your choice, I can write them up and send them to you privately and you can make them available on request by whatever means you like.

I like the look of nxlog, and if I can help by contributing build instructions for Windows I am happy to do so.

Chris Main

On Fri, 27 Sep 2013 14:54:09 +0000
"Main, Chris" <***@viasat.uk.com> wrote:

> I've tried quite hard to get this working but have only got as far as getting configure to run to completion without error.
>
> What I have done is:
>
> Install MinGW with:
> mingw-developer-toolkit
> mingw32-base
>
> Additionally install in MinGW:
> mingw32_expat bin
> mingw32-libexpat dev
> mingw32-libexpat dll
> msys-libopenssl dev
>
> Set MSYS CPATH environment variable to C:\mingw\msys\1.0\include Set
> MSYS LIBRARY_PATH environment variable to C:\mingw\msys\1.0\lib
>
> Download the Unix Source for Apache Portable Runtime (apr-1.4.8.tar.gz)
> uncompress
> extract
> ./configure
> make
> make install
>
> Add /usr/local/apr/bin to the PATH in /etc/profile
>
> Download the source code for Perl Compatible Regular Expression (pcre-8.33.tar.gz)
> uncompress
> extract
> ./configure --prefix=/mingw --enable-pcre16 --enable-pcre32 --enable-unicode-properties --enable-newline-is-any --disable-cpp
> make
> make install
>
> Download the source code for nxlog (nxlog-ce-2.5.1089.tar.gz)
> uncompress
> extract
> ./configure
>
> make then fails with many compilation errors, most of them "error: unknown type name 'boolean'"
>
> I would really like a definitive set of build instructions, which I believe are supposed to be provided under the terms of the LGPL and GPL.
>
> Chris Main
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Botond Botyanszki [mailto:***@gmail.com] On Behalf
> Of Botond Botyanszki
> Sent: 27 September 2013 09:54
> To: Main, Chris
> Subject: Re: [nxlog-ce-users] Compiling nxlog for Windows
>
> Hi,
>
> The build system is gnu style using autotools and gcc. On windows it needs mingw and msys to be able to run configure && make.
>
> Regards,
> Botond
>
>
> On Thu, 26 Sep 2013 12:32:56 +0000
> "Main, Chris" <***@viasat.uk.com> wrote:
>
> > I am currently investigating Windows event log to syslog clients, and it's quite possible that we would need to make some modifications.
> >
> > In that case, we would need to rebuild the Windows binary from source, and I am trying to understand how we would do that.
> >
> > Chris Main
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Botond Botyanszki [mailto:***@gmail.com] On
> > Behalf Of Botond Botyanszki
> > Sent: 26 September 2013 12:34
> > To: Main, Chris
> > Subject: Re: [nxlog-ce-users] Compiling nxlog for Windows
> >
> > Hi,
> >
> > AFAIR this contained some sensitive information and we removed it.
> > Is there any reason why the current binary build is not sufficient for you?
> >
> > Regards,
> > Botond
> >
> > On Thu, 26 Sep 2013 11:23:40 +0000
> > "Main, Chris" <***@viasat.uk.com> wrote:
> >
> > > > Hi,
> > > >
> > > > There is a zipped up msys environment on the sourceforge
> > > > downloads page containing all dependencies precompiled.
> > > > This may serve as an example for setting up your own if you want
> > > > to do that.
> > > >
> > > > Regards,
> > > > Botond
> > >
> > > I can't find this on the sourceforge downloads page. Where exactly is it?
> > >
> > > Chris Main
> > >
> > >
> > > This email and any files transmitted with it may be confidential, legally privileged and protected in law and are intended solely for the use of the individual to whom it is addressed. Any view or opinions presented are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of ViaSat. If you have received this Email in error please contact the sender by return and confirm that its contents have been destroyed without further distribution or disclosure. Please email ***@viasat.uk.com<mailto:***@viasat.uk.com> with any questions relating to this disclaimer.
> > >
> > > ViaSat has Registered Offices at Sandford Lane, Wareham, Dorset BH20 4DY. The company is registered in England and Wales under no: 3007498.
> > >
> > > ------------------------------------------------------------------
> > > --
> > > --
> > > -------- October Webinars: Code for Performance Free Intel
> > > webinars can help you accelerate application performance.
> > > Explore tips for MPI, OpenMP, advanced profiling, and more. Get
> > > the most from the latest Intel processors and coprocessors. See
> > > abstracts and register >
> > > http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/clk?id=60133471&iu=/4140/os
> > > tg .c lktrk _______________________________________________
> > > nxlog-ce-users mailing list
> > > nxlog-ce-***@lists.sourceforge.net
> > > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/nxlog-ce-users
> >
> > This email and any files transmitted with it may be confidential, legally privileged and protected in law and are intended solely for the use of the individual to whom it is addressed. Any view or opinions presented are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of ViaSat. If you have received this Email in error please contact the sender by return and confirm that its contents have been destroyed without further distribution or disclosure. Please email ***@viasat.uk.com<mailto:***@viasat.uk.com> with any questions relating to this disclaimer.
> >
> > ViaSat has Registered Offices at Sandford Lane, Wareham, Dorset BH20 4DY. The company is registered in England and Wales under no: 3007498.
>
> This email and any files transmitted with it may be confidential, legally privileged and protected in law and are intended solely for the use of the individual to whom it is addressed. Any view or opinions presented are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of ViaSat. If you have received this Email in error please contact the sender by return and confirm that its contents have been destroyed without further distribution or disclosure. Please email ***@viasat.uk.com<mailto:***@viasat.uk.com> with any questions relating to this disclaimer.
>
> ViaSat has Registered Offices at Sandford Lane, Wareham, Dorset BH20 4DY. The company is registered in England and Wales under no: 3007498.
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> -------- October Webinars: Code for Performance Free Intel webinars
> can help you accelerate application performance.
> Explore tips for MPI, OpenMP, advanced profiling, and more. Get the
> most from the latest Intel processors and coprocessors. See abstracts
> and register >
> http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/clk?id=60133471&iu=/4140/ostg.c
> lktrk _______________________________________________
> nxlog-ce-users mailing list
> nxlog-ce-***@lists.sourceforge.net
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/nxlog-ce-users

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
October Webinars: Code for Performance
Free Intel webinars can help you accelerate application performance.
Explore tips for MPI, OpenMP, advanced profiling, and more. Get the most from the latest Intel processors and coprocessors. See abstracts and register > http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/clk?id=60133471&iu=/4140/ostg.clktrk
_______________________________________________
nxlog-ce-users mailing list
nxlog-ce-***@lists.sourceforge.net
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/nxlog-ce-users

This email and any files transmitted with it may be confidential, legally privileged and protected in law and are intended solely for the use of the individual to whom it is addressed. Any view or opinions presented are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of ViaSat. If you have received this Email in error please contact the sender by return and confirm that its contents have been destroyed without further distribution or disclosure. Please email ***@viasat.uk.com<mailto:***@viasat.uk.com> with any questions relating to this disclaimer.

ViaSat has Registered Offices at Sandford Lane, Wareham, Dorset BH20 4DY. The company is registered in England and Wales under no: 3007498.
Botond Botyanszki
2013-10-01 15:02:58 UTC
Permalink
Hi Chris,

> You are correct, you are completely at liberty to choose any license you
> like for your software, and I respect that. However, if you do choose to
> release your software under GPL or LGPL you also place yourself under an
> obligation to provide build instructions. This is not what I say, it is
> what the GPL/LGPL themselves say. I recommend to you "A Practical Guide
> to GPL Compliance" published by the Software Freedom Law Center:
>
> http://www.softwarefreedom.org/resources/2008/compliance-guide.html
>
> Particularly section 4.2.2 Building the Sources:
>
> "You must provide all information necessary such that someone generally
> skilled with computer systems could produce a binary similar to the one
> provided." "Most importantly, you must provide some sort of roadmap that
> allows technically sophisticated users to build your software."

Thank you for pointing this out. Seriously. On the other hand the project
uses standardized gnu autotools/gcc to build. Sorry, but unfortunately we
don't have enough resources to maintain a documentation that goes on in
details with the exact commands about how to build it on every platform,
listing the exact dependencies. There are new releases of the supported
platforms every day. If a new version of a dependency comes with this
newly released OS version and breaks the build, then I would be
liable to be not adhering to the GPL/LGPL terms because I have not
provided build instructions for that specific environment.

If you look deeper, there are even packaging scripts which help not only
compile but build a binary package for various platforms.
Note that there are thousands of open source projects licensed under the
GPL/LGPL which not only don't provide packaging scripts but also fail to
build correctly on most platforms which they claim to support.

> So my understanding is that either you should provide build instructions
> for Windows, or you should release the Windows binary under a different license.
> The choice is yours and I respect it.
Thank you for your advice. This issue has been in the air recently, see
my next email.

> Both I personally, and ViaSat as a company, take very seriously our
> obligations to comply fully with software licenses, and we do not knowingly violate them.
> The GPL and LGPL place us under an obligation to make our modifications
> available, under the same license, to those we distribute the modified
> software to.
This is the tricky part of the GPL/LGPL, which you have exactly said here:
you are only required to make the modifications available to those who
you distribute the software to but you are not required to contribute
anything back to the project. The current license allows that. This shall
be fixed. Thanks for pointing it out.

> I didn't come here the first time demanding build instructions, I took the
> hints you gave and spent several hours trying to figure it out for myself.
I certainly understand your frustration, as windows is the platform which
isn't my favorite either. On the other hand you seem to have enough
experience to be able to figure out what is causing the compile error.
We have several windows machines where nxlog can build successfully in an
msys environment. It's possible that something has changed meanwhile in
the dependencies, in msys or in mingw that causes the build to fail and
it is also possible that I or somebody else tweaked the build
environment , but I can't recall seeing the exact error you are having.

Believe it or not, I'd like to help you. Unfortunately it would require a
substantial amount of time to set up a fresh windows and start installing
build dependencies from scratch to be able to reproduce the build problem
you are having. And all this just to support YOU on my free time for free,
where YOU is a company "Surpassing 2,700 Employees and $1 Billion in
Sales" which is probably interested in selling a modified version of nxlog
to customers and only making available the source code to those
customers only.

Instead of spending a half day with your problem by playing charity for
YOU, I'd rather choose to spend time with my real job working with paying
customers to earn a living, play with my children, sleep, whatever.

Thank you for your understanding and please read my next email to help
understand the situation better.
Sorry if I couldn't meet your expectations.

Regards,
Botond
Main, Chris
2013-10-02 09:18:08 UTC
Permalink
> Note that there are thousands of open source projects licensed under the GPL/LGPL which not only don't provide packaging scripts but also fail to build correctly on most platforms which they
> claim to support.

In fairness to open source projects, I have to say that that has not been my experience of them.

> We have several windows machines where nxlog can build successfully in an msys environment. It's possible that something has changed meanwhile in the dependencies, in msys or in mingw that causes the
> build to fail and it is also possible that I or somebody else tweaked the build environment , but I can't recall seeing the exact error you are having.
> Believe it or not, I'd like to help you. Unfortunately it would require a substantial amount of time to set up a fresh windows and start installing build dependencies from scratch to be able to
> reproduce the build problem you are having. And all this just to support YOU on my free time for free, where YOU is a company "Surpassing 2,700 Employees and $1 Billion in Sales" which is probably
> interested in selling a modified version of nxlog to customers and only making available the source code to those customers only.

I think you misunderstand. I am not asking you to reproduce my problem. I am asking you for the instructions that you follow to build your Windows binary.

The reason I listed what I had tried was to demonstrate to you that I had invested half a day of my company's time trying to make it work, that I am not just expecting something for nothing.

In fairness to my employer, I must repeat what I said previously, its preference is to contribute source code back whenever possible. Furthermore it pays for licenses, it pays for support, it pays for enhancements and it contributes bug fixes to open source projects.

Chris Main

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