Legal uses of lex & yacc

John R. Levine johnl at esegue.segue.boston.ma.us
Thu Feb 22 03:08:21 AEST 1990


In article <271 at xyzzy.UUCP> kan at tom.dg.com () writes:
>But if you intend to distribute only C code, i.e. after you've run
>your work through the "Official" Lex and Yacc, you can be prosecuted
>for copyright infringement!  ...

I wish people would check their "facts."  AT&T has for several years
explicitly permitted programs built with lex and yacc to be redistributed
without restriction.  The same goes for executables built with the C library.

For those who don't like yacc and lex, Bob Corbett's Berkeley Yacc is
entirely public domain.  Vern Paxton's flex is subject to the Berkeley
copyright (which allows unlimited redistribution so long as you include
Berkeley's copyright and disclaimer.)  The flex parser skeleton is public
domain.
-- 
John R. Levine, Segue Software, POB 349, Cambridge MA 02238, +1 617 864 9650
johnl at esegue.segue.boston.ma.us, {ima|lotus|spdcc}!esegue!johnl
"Now, we are all jelly doughnuts."



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