Hi,
I thought that one is prohibited to write an extension that links to GPL code
since the extension should be GPLed too and through it the engine. I mean
I started to write an extension an year ago, then I realized that the license
of the library is GPL therefore I stopped since I understood it is illegal to
develop and distribute (through my site) this extension. Was I wrong or?
The key word there is "distribute". There is nothing that violates the GPL when you simply write whatever you want using or linking against GPL'ed code. It is only when you distribute this work that the GPL kicks in.
And technically you can write a GPL'ed extension and distribute it along with a GPL'ed PHP from your own site. There is nothing in PHP's license that prevents you from redistributing PHP under the GPL as long as you at the same time follow the terms of the PHP license which would include the fact that you can't call your version "PHP". The PHP license is not incompatible with the GPL in this respect.
-Rasmus
Well, I don't want to put big bzipped tarbal on my site. What should I do?
Probably I can distribute the source, it's my freedom of speech :), however
are the users that install (phpize or static compile) the extension doing something wrong?
I mean they don't distribute PHP they are just building some code(my code)
and linking it to the PHP source/binary they have.
Thanks is advance,
Andrey