Re: including a wireshark view in propietary software

[Jaap Keuter <jaap.keuter () xs4all nl>]

Alexander Göbel wrote:
> Dear Wireshark developers,
>
> As a university student I just started working for an IT-engineering 
> chair. They are working on a software they plan to sell commercially. 
> I've read the GNU GPL and your FAQ as well but I still don't feel 
> competent enough to judge my situation here:
> Would it be possible to include a view of Wireshark in one tab of this 
> program? Wireshark would be installed and run seperately of our program, 
> but our program would start Wireshark and display it as a new tab within 
> the program.
> I think this can be considered to be "at arm's length", but I'm not 
> really sure.
> What about just  using a .dll in propietary software? The FAQ said that 
> would probably be a bad approach.
>
> Nothing of this has been realized yet, it's just in our minds so far.
> Personally I love the idea of free software, but for this project my 
> hands are tied.
>
> Thank you for your efforts!
> Best wishes
> Alexander

Hi Alexander,

As the text says "at arm's length", which means something like communicating 
with Wireshark through the channels provided by the underlying OS (like pipes or 
even files) is oke. Incorporating compiled code and use it's external 
interfaces, like including a DLL does make the GNU GPL applicable to your software.
If you can channel the Wireshark screen output through an OS mechanism into a 
view in your application that probably doesn't make the GNU GPL apply to your 
software.
So far I haven't seen such integration of an GPL'ed application in another 
program, so I might have missed something.

Thanx,
Jaap

___________________________________________________________________________
Sent via:    Wireshark-dev mailing list <wireshark-dev () wireshark org>
Archives:    http://www.wireshark.org/lists/wireshark-dev
Unsubscribe: https://wireshark.org/mailman/options/wireshark-dev
             mailto:wireshark-dev-request () wireshark org?subject=unsubscribe