Erik Trimble <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > This is obviously a missunderstanding. You do not need to make
> > ZFS _part_ of the Linux kernel as id is some kind of driver.
> >
> > Using ZFS with Linux would be "mere aggregation" (see GPL text).
> >
> > Jörg
> >
> >
> No, the general consensus amongst Linux folks is that kernel modules
> calling any kernel code are considered "part" of the Linux kernel; this
> is still up for legal debate, of course, but this kind of very dark grey
> area is something that Sun's lawyers hate. Which means that having a
> CDDL'd kernel driver is going to turn them sickly green, because of the
> _very_ unknown legality of it.
Well, a German author definitely may do this as the German Copuyright
law allows to "use" a minor part of other peoples "work" without asking in
case that there is a note on this fact. This is called: "Wissenschaftliches
Kleinzitat". I believe that the US Copyright law has a similar exception
(called "fair use") but you need to ask the author.
> This issue is exactly why ATI/nVidia have their own GPL'd kernel
> modules, but a proprietary driver. As I mentioned before, ZFS almost
> certainly needs Linux VFS hooks, which are _definitely_ going to be
> considered GPL'd code, and thus, ZFS would be required to be GPL-compatible.
>
> About the best I can suggest is that you look at the ZFS code and see
> where it requires VFS access, and then write a kernel module which
> exports a specific API to the kernel VFS layer, and port the ZFS code to
> use that new API. Go look at the aforementioned nVidia drivers for an
> example of how they do it. Or, maybe even look at the OSS (Open Sound
> System) code for how to provide this kind of meta-API.
With knowledge on the fastly changing Linux kernel interfaces, this
seems to be the best way to go anyway :-)
Jörg
--
EMail:[EMAIL PROTECTED] (home) Jörg Schilling D-13353 Berlin
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (uni)
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (work) Blog: http://schily.blogspot.com/
URL: http://cdrecord.berlios.de/old/private/ ftp://ftp.berlios.de/pub/schily
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