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Subject: Re: Why can't gcc-4.2.1 build usable libreoffice?
From: Ian Lepore <ian@FreeBSD.org>
To: "Mikhail T." <mi+thun@aldan.algebra.com>
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Date: Tue, 19 Feb 2013 12:14:46 -0700
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Cc: Chris Rees <crees@FreeBSD.org>, Adrian Chadd <adrian@FreeBSD.org>,
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On Tue, 2013-02-19 at 13:54 -0500, Mikhail T. wrote:
> > Licensing prevents us from updating gcc in the base.
> Licensing? Could you elaborate, which aspect of licensing you have in
> mind? 

Versions of gcc after the 4.2.1 version we use are licensed under GPLv3.
I'm not a lawyer, so I don't understand all the fine details of why
GPLv3 is bad for the freebsd project, but I accept the analysis and
decisions the project made on that subject some time ago.  

As you might imagine, switching to a new compiler isn't something you
decide to do this afternoon and finish up tomorrow with a big checkin.
It takes many months of testing and iteratively fixing bugs... bugs
found in the new compiler, and bugs the new compiler exposes in the
existing source base.

I think we've been able to cherry-pick a few specific fixes from gcc
upstream that weren't encumbered by GPLv3, but for the most part I think
nobody is actively maintaining the GPLv2 code anymore.

-- Ian