User's Manual

Lesser GNU General Public License

GNU LESSER GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE

Version 2.1, February 1999

51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA

Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this license document, but

changing it is not allowed.

[This is the first released version of the Lesser GPL. It also counts as the successor of the

GNU Library Public License, version 2, hence the version number 2.1.]

Preamble

The licenses for most software are designed to take away your freedom to share and change it.

By contrast, the GNU General Public Licenses are intended to guarantee your freedom to share

and change free software--to make sure the software is free for all its users.

This license, the Lesser General Public License, applies to some specially designated software

packages--typically libraries--of the Free Software Foundation and other authors who decide to

use it. You can use it too, but we suggest you first think carefully about whether this license or

the ordinary General Public License is the better strategy to use in any particular case, based on

the explanations below.

When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom of use, not price. Our General

Public Licenses are designed to make sure that you have the freedom to distribute copies of

free software (and charge for this service if you wish); that you receive source code or can get

it if you want it; that you can change the software and use pieces of it in new free programs;

and that you are informed that you can do these things.

To protect your rights, we need to make restrictions that forbid distributors to deny you these

rights or to ask you to surrender these rights. These restrictions translate to certain

responsibilities for you if you distribute copies of the library or if you modify it.

For example, if you distribute copies of the library, whether gratis or for a fee, you must give

the recipients all the rights that we gave you. You must make sure that they, too, receive or

can get the source code. If you link other code with the library, you must provide complete

object files to the recipients, so that they can relink them with the library after making changes

to the library and recompiling it. And you must show them these terms so they know their

rights.

We protect your rights with a two-step method: (1) we copyright the library, and (2) we offer

you this license, which gives you legal permission to copy, distribute and/or modify the library.

To protect each distributor, we want to make it very clear that there is no warranty for the free

library. Also, if the library is modified by someone else and passed on, the recipients should

know that what they have is not the original version, so that the original author's reputation will

not be affected by problems that might be introduced by others.