[Samba] vfs module license particulars

[Jeremy Drake]

On Thu, 11 Aug 2005, Jeremy Allison wrote:

> On Thu, Aug 11, 2005 at 01:15:01AM -0700, Jeremy Drake wrote:
> > For instance, would it be allowed to write a vfs module which talks to
> > Oracle to get the data which backs the filesystem rather than an actual
> > filesystem?  Even if it involves linking against Oracle's
> > proprietary OCI library for calls into the database?
> >
> > Quoting from a message from the archives which I found in my searches
> > (http://lists.samba.org/archive/samba-technical/2002-February/019881.html):
> >
> > "For example, a vfs plugin that links to Oracle as a backend would
> > be GPL, but Oracle itself would not come under the GPL. This is
> > because Oracle is a program that is of itself functional without
> > Samba."
> >
>
> If you want to link to proprietary code from a Samba VFS you need to
> talk to a lawyer. No other advice will do. It's a very dicey thing to
> do and most ways of doing it will not be legal. Seek legal advice from
> your company.

OK, let's try a slightly different question/approach.  If I, as a random
samba user interested in such a thing, wanted to write an oracle vfs
module such as described in the original quote, and I released this vfs
code under the gpl, would this be allowed?  The library for calling into
oracle is proprietary, as is oracle itself, but the logic for mapping an
oracle db into a filesystem-like structure would be contained in the vfs
and thus gpl.  I find it hard to believe that someone who uses oracle and
uses samba, and would like to interface them and distribute an open source
work could not do so due to mis-matching between the oracle license and
the gpl.  An example of such a thing is pam_oci8, which is a GPL module
which (indirectly) links against OCI.


>
> Jeremy.
>

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