Hi Arnt,
On 05/03/2014 12:17, Arnt Karlsen wrote:
..I disagree, once you have the _complete_ recipe, with correct
compiler versions, settings, time stamps etc thrown in, you will
be able to prove all your correct checksums etc in GPL compliance
cases. _No_ need to back off here.
I'm interested to know whether we're talking theoretically or not; have
you yourself personally achieved GPL compliance in this way? Or have you
been able to compile, say, a linux kernel on one machine, then setup
another machine from scratch and produce a kernel with an identical
checksum?
I'd tried to produce identical checksum binaries from various compilers
in the past; I've never succeeded in that, but on one occasion, after
applying an awful lot of preparation, and writing a custom tool that
excluded certain parts of the binary from comparison, we did manage to
produce "identical" binaries.
I'm unsure how many companies would adopt such a strategy. The GPL only
requires them to provide source that matches the binaries, it does not
(by my reading) require them to provide proof beyond doubt that the
source and binaries match.
Joseph
