[m-dev.] [m-users.] Closed source Mercury projects on Windows

[Zoltan Somogyi]

On Sat, 9 Jun 2018 17:22:44 +1000 (AEST), Julien Fischer <jfischer at opturion.com> wrote:

> 
> 
> On Sat, 9 Jun 2018, Mark Brown wrote:
> 
> > On Sat, Jun 9, 2018 at 5:46 AM, Julien Fischer <jfischer at opturion.com> wrote:
> >>
> >> Hi Mark,
> >>
> >> On Sat, 9 Jun 2018, Mark Brown wrote:
> >
> > Diff for that last point is attached. I think I'll leave off trying to
> > document the implications configuring with readline for now, since the
> > change hasn't made any claims about how programs can be distributed
> > anyway.
> 
> The diff looks fine.
> 
> > I wonder if we could add a configure option like
> > `--enable-closed-source-distribution` which disables configuration of
> > anything, like readline, that may impede distribution of closed-source
> > binaries? That would also help ensure that no new libraries sneak into
> > your project when you update Mercury.
> 
> --without-gpl-libs
> 
> Julien.

At the moment, we print out a summary at the end of the configure
process about things such as where the compiler will be installed
and what grades will be installed. When we add such configure options,
we should extend this summary with info such as

Mercury programs compiled in non-debug grades are not subject to the GPL.
Mercury programs compiled in debug grades are subject to the GPL,
due to them containing the GPL readline library.

(The latter in the absence of the --without-gpl-libs option, of course.)

Zoltan.