[pkg-firebird-general] [firebird-devel] Editline digging into not just cmdline history (was qmtesting)

[Mark O'Donohue]

Hi Damyan


On 14/12/08 01:52, Damyan Ivanov wrote:
>
> It is my impression that the library Firebird has in extern/editline
> and libeditline are two different things. The former _seems_ to have
> NetBSD roots, while  the later is written by Rich Salz[1]
>

So now I've been through the firebird cvs logs :-). It seems the
history of editline/readline/libedit is:

     1) Just over six years ago I change fb to check and link with
        readline library on linux, if it was available, to get the
        history in isql (no source required).

     2) About six months later someone pointed out readline was gpl and
        we were not allowed to link to it (I hadn't looked and assumed
        it was lgpl like the c libraries).   So to resolve this I took
        a  copy of Debian/editline src, which was licence compatable and
        included it in firebird2/src/exten/editline.

     3) Then four years ago Nicklay replaced editline with libedit, but
        kept the same directory name (firebird2/src/extern/editline).

     4) also approx four years ago, it seems as part of ICU integration,
        readline source was included in firebird2/extern/editline. (Note
        the different directory).  This is slightly ironic given what
        happened in step 2, but different people involved and we all
        need to learn how to jump through the same hoop.

     5) It seems just over a year ago, someone noticed (again) readline
        was incompatible, and Alex replaced readline with a version of
        libedit in firebird2/extern/editline.

> so it seems a clone of the NetBSD libedit.

yes we are currently using libedit from BSD

The libedit package we are using is just a direct copy from :
       http://www.thrysoee.dk/editline/

But to make life exciting, we use it in a directory called editline, the 
name of another package providing the same functions.  But certainly if 
anyone knows another possible readline alternative please do tell us so 
we can try that one as well!

>
> Debian's libedit comes[2] from NetBSD CVS.
>
>      [2]
http://packages.debian.org/changelogs/pool/main/libe/libedit/libedit_2.11~20080614-1/libedit2.copyright
>

> By the way, the COPYING file in extern/editline starts with:
> ....
>
> Note that "the above copyright notice" seems to be missing, which (1)
> makes it hard to confirm if this is really NetBSD libedit, and (2)
> Firebird project seems to not actually have permission to redistribute
> extern/editline since the copyright notice is not retained. *sigh*
>

I think the licences are ok, as all the source files have the correct 
license attribution in them, although you are correct the COPYING file 
itself is not complete.  It also looks as if netbsd has changed the 
license in their files to a 2 part one.

http://cvsweb.netbsd.org/bsdweb.cgi/src/lib/libedit/?sortby=date#dirlist

While I have spent this much  time on it, I might straighten out our 
build for fb3, call the directory libedit, and use the latest one from:
       http://www.thrysoee.dk/editline/

I have sent an email to Jess Thrysoee about the license, if he needs to 
make a change we can incorporate that latter version when it comes through.

That ok?

Cheers - Mark

PS: I cc'd firebird-devel, they know the latter part of this story 
better than I.