Btsync License?

[elfo]

Hi all,

 

I would like to package btsync for use with my favorite linux distro (slackware), but I don't know if I'm allowed to do it or not.

The LICENSE.TXT file included in the tar ball just has a link to a "terms of use" website that states that we are not allowed to copy or distribute "the software"... so that would be a no... yet, that site is so general purpose that I'm not sure if it applies to btsync specifically or not.

 

Sure, I could write a script that downloads the tar ball, extracts it, forms a slackware package with it and installs it, but that would be silly.

I'd rather have a slackware package that I could maintain and distribute to the community.

 

It would be great to have an "official" answer

 

Thanks

[RomanZ]

@elfo

 

Do I understand correctly that you want to make a slackware package which will be available for installation with slackware distro? If yes - you can do it. You'll need to make an explicit note that the package is not official BitTorrent package.

 

Also note, that Sync is in beta now and new versions are released pretty often, so it is very likely you'll need some script to update your package regularly with new versions.

[elfo]

Hello RomanZ,

 

Thank you for your reply and please excuse my lateness in viewing it (I was on a much deserved vacation).

 

I wish to submit a slackbuild to our community driven site slackbuilds.org

For those unfamiliar with slackware: a slackbuild is a script that builds a well formed slackware package by compiling source code and packaging the resulting binaries in the appropriate folders or by simply packaging the supplied binaries in case of closed source software (think of NVIDIA drivers and the like).

Please note that slackbuilds.org only hosts slackbuild scripts, not binary packages.

 

There are, of course, some rules to follow but the one that applies to this case is:

"a link to the download location for the specific version must be supplied".

Unfortunately, btsync download location for a specific version is not easily available.

 

Another option is to make a slackbuild that does not comply with the official rules and host it on my own, but it would be nice to have an easier way to identify the version number.

I *could* extract the tar ball, then execute "btsync --help" and parse the version number from the output, but would rather parse some "README.TXT" file if you would be kind enough to include it in the tar ball.

This file should contain the version number for the binary any warnings that you see fit to display (like the license link), as well as a change log (again, optional).

 

What do you think?