

ZFS port to linux - bensummers
http://kqinfotech.wordpress.com/2009/10/23/hello-world/

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stingraycharles
_But we believe the way to get around this issue is to build ZFS as a module
with a CDDL license, it can still be loaded in the Linux kernel. Though it
would be restricted to use the non- GPL symbols, but as long as that rule is
adhered to there is no problem of legal issues._

I can't believe it really is that simple ? If so, why hasn't anyone mentioned
this before ?

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papercrane
It's not really that clear cut. According to Linus, as long as they aren't
writing a derivative work and they only use the public kernel interfaces then
it's all good. That view isn't held by all of the contributors however.

The only people who would have standing to take any legal action however,
probably aren't really going to care enough about it. If a Linux distribution
decides to include it, I imagine a few high profile people will write angry
blog posts, but that's about it.

See also:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_kernel#Loadable_kernel_mo...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_kernel#Loadable_kernel_modules_and_firmware)

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pmjordan
I was wondering when that was going to happen. As far as I know, there's a
FUSE port of ZFS - no idea how far along that is.

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michaelneale
I didn't think it was so much about the technical challenges but the licence
and IP issues?

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pmjordan
Indeed, there won't be any inclusion into the mainline tree unless Sun
re/dual-licenses it to be GPL compatible. I'm just surprised that it's so far
been FUSE-only, given that the non-GPL kernel module API exists. I guess it'll
require distribution support for it to be practical, as compiling kernel
modules to survive updates isn't exactly for the faint of heart.

~~~
FooBarWidget
Wait a minute, hasn't ZFS already been ported to FreeBSD? Why can't Linux just
take the FreeBSD version, which I presume is BSD licensed? Ditto for stuff
like D-Trace. Or does FreeBSD actually allow inclusion of non-BSD-licensed
code?

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Malus
FreeBSD does allow for the inclusion of other licenses. The GPL 2 and CDDL are
two prominent examples (though they are actively trying to remove as much GPL
code from the tree as possible). Users who are unhappy with CDDL licensed code
still have the option of disabling it in FreeBSD's build.

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Anurag_kq
We understand that we can distribute ZFS binary under a non GPL license, as
long as it does not use GPL symbols.

Our plan regarding ZFS is to first port it to Linux kernel and then make its
binary distributions available for various different distributions of Linux.
These binary distribution will be in form of loadable kernel modules and
commands.

Once we get ready with ZFS port then we will start sharing our plans for its
binary distributions. Feel free to contact us if anyone is interested in ZFS
port on specific linux distribution.

Anurag

