"Hoyt, David" hoyt6@llnl.gov writes:
As a feature request, it'd be useful to have an additional configure flag "--enable-gpl" like the FFmpeg folks use that allows GPL algorithms to be built.
Would make some sense, except that I'd prefer a different default, and I'm not sure what the name should be. I'd somehow prefer something like enable-lgpl-compatibility to the blunt --disable-gpl.
To implement it, one would need one autoconf/Makefile conditional (setup in the same way as IF_HOGWEED and IF_SHARED), and one preprocessor conditional to disable use in nettle-benchmark.c and any other places.
Right now I have to play around with makefiles to remove GPL-only algorithms (as per the included manual) such as serpent and blowfish.
For blowfish, I think it should be straight-forward to copy the lgpl:ed implementation from libgrypt.
For serpent, I'm not aware of any lgpl:ed implementation, and I doubt it's worth the efffort to write one from scratch (or rather, I'd prefer that the guy who wants to use serpent in a proprietary application pays for that development...). Several years ago, I wrote to the serpent folks to ask if they were willing to change the license of their implementation to the lgpl. If I remember correctly, there were no strong objections, but they didn't have the time to track down everyone who was involved in the project and discuss a license change.
Regards, /Niels