[CentOS] CentOS Kernel Support

[Peter Kjellström]

On Thu, 14 Jun 2018 10:12:30 -0500
Valeri Galtsev <galtsev at kicp.uchicago.edu> wrote:

> On 06/14/18 10:00, Peter Kjellström wrote:
> > On Thu, 14 Jun 2018 16:26:27 +0200
> > Gianluca Cecchi <gianluca.cecchi at gmail.com> wrote:
> > ...  
> >>>> The src.rpm for that kernel is probably available somewhere.  
> >>>
> >>> I'm fairly certain you cannot download the SRPM for EUS kernels.
> >>> You might if you're a Red Hat customer paying for that product
> >>> (but don't take my word for it).  
> > ...  
> >> I agree for the format of release (SRPM), but in any case Red Hat
> >> should provide the sources for the changes, as the kernel is
> >> GPL-2.0 Then one can manually try to merge them in a patched
> >> kernel in some way... Gianluca  
> > 
> > Redhat of course complies with the GPL and provide source to the
> > customers that get access to the binary packages. They are not
> > required to provide the sources to anyone else.  
> 
> GPL requires to provide source if everything derived from the
> original source to everybody, not only to customers. And RedHat was
> ever compliant with GPL. Kudos to RedHat! So, if there exist patched
> kernels of out of support life, they should be downloadable somewhere
> somehow.

No you are minunderstanding the GPL.

You are only required to provide source to those who got the binary
artifact(s). They then have the full GPL rights to further modify etc.
In many cases the binaries are distributed to everyone and then so is
the source. In other cases (such as RHEL) only source is provided to
everyone (but that is fine too).

Consider a simpler case: I make a copy of a existing GPL pkg. I modify
this and use it myself. I do not have to share my changes with anyone.

My copy is still GPL though..

..so if I give a copy of the source to a friend it no longer matters
(to him/her) wether I made that source public before or not. They can
modify or not and make available publicly or not.

Had I sent my friend a binary copy he/she would have had the right to
require me to also hand over the source.

None of us would have any obligations to a 3rd party.

/Peter