SUMM: OSF-DEV licence questions

From: Guy Dallaire <gdallaire_at_gustave.revenu.gouv.qc.ca>
Date: Wed, 17 Dec 1997 10:58:55 -0500 (EST)

Thanks to everyone who replied so quickly. I can not name anybody but you
know who you are.

Here is the original question as well as excerpts from answers I received:

I noticed after removing the OSF-DEV licence PAK from one of our computers,
that a regular user could still use the C compiler. Is OSF-DEV the 'C
developper's extension' licence ? I still wonder why the lmf tool does not
show an intelligent name for each licence instead of a cryptic one !

I used to think that you NEEDED that licence to use the compiler.

Are we legal if we use the compiler (only to rebuild executables on a
production machine) if we don't have the OSF-DEV pak ?

Note: There is NO development on the production machine, all we do is
recompile the apps developped on a develeopment machine (which has the PAK)
to be sure that they'll run correctly against a possibly different release
of our oracle database.

------------------------------------------------------------

>From Alan Rollow (Dec employee)

The compiler doesn't check for the presense of a license because
it is still needed to build the kernel. So, the license check
has always been in the support tools. I know that dbx has a
license check and other tools may as well. The PAK is proof
that you've bought the license. Not having read the terms and
conditions associated with the license, my guess is that as
long as you've bought the license you can decide whether to
install it or not. The PAK gives you control over who uses
the product on that system, though obviously not as much control
as you'd like.

>From the point of view as a Digital stock holder and an employee
that relies on all Digital making a profit, as long as you've
bought two licenses, one for each machine, I'm satisfied. I
haven't a clue what the lawyers would say if they knew...

As for the name, that's what it has always been. The PAK probably
had that name long before the product managers had decided what
to officially call the product. PAK names rarely change, because
it means changing code in otherwise stable parts of products and
causes considerable customer confusion.
------------------------------------------------------------
Kevin Oberman:

The DEV license is a funny one. It is required to run the C compiler
on user code, but not for kernel code. (You need the C compiler to
rebuild the kernel and that operation does not require the DEV
license.)
...
Bottom line: You can run the C compiler on any DU system with or
without a PAK, but it is not authorized for user code without a
license. The other developers tools including the debugger will not
run without the PAK installed.

------------------------------------------------------------

>From Dave Metsky (Dec employee)

The compilers (both the old and new C compiler) are indeed covered by the
OSF-DEV license. There currently is no test because the compiler is need
to rebuild the kernels. However, that is the only use of the compiler that
does not require you to buy the OSF-DEV license. When the compiler is no
longer needed to build the kernel, I would expect to see an LMF check
placed in the compiler.

Technically, what you are doing requires the purchase of the OSF-DEV
license for your production machine.



------------------------------------
Conclusion:

So we will have to buy an extra OSF-DEV licence to recompile our
applications on the production server.

Also, we noticed that the OSF-DEV PAK paper on one of our servers is called
"Dev toiolkit U/A trad lic" and has 1050 units, the other server has
something called "DEC OSF/1 C DEVEL EXT O/A" and has 1100 units.

If you want to avoid spending money, you can download and compile gcc (GNU)
but that is not supported by our oracle pre-compilers.

--------------------------------------------------
Guy Dallaire
Groupe Conseil DMR
Tel.:
MRQ: 652-5703
DMR: 653-6882 ext 6072
E-mail: guy.dallaire_at_riq.qc.ca, guy_dallaire_at_dmr.ca
Received on Wed Dec 17 1997 - 17:33:00 NZDT

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