Do you see any issues using SASUnit in the proprietary code? Its GPL license
gives me some doubts what I can use it for my clients' work. AFAIK, linking
against any GPL'ed library means the end result should be covered by GPL,
what may come as surprise to a client who paid for the code and expects the
full IP rights. Does anybody have experience using SASUnit for the
proprietary development?
Thanks,
Anton.
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If you are going to use SASUnit as a testing tool for SAS programs you write for your client, you won't be linking those SAS programs against SASUnit. SASUnit does not become a part of the programs you deliver to your client. In the case your customer wants to receive also the test scripts you wrote (which I would always recommend to him) you do not have to distribute SASUnit to him, he can download it himself if he wants to run your test scripts. This is exactly the situation covered in the GPL FAQ (https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#CanIUseGPLToolsForNF) where they say that it is allowed to use tools under the GPL to create proprietary programs. We at HMS use SASUnit to test proprietary SAS programs very often, our customers are aware of this and none of them has objected so far.
If you, on the other hand, plan to incorporate parts of SASUnit into the code you write for and deliver to your client (for instance reusing some of the utility macros of SASUnit), this would be a case where the GPL would force you to put the whole work under the GPL. But this is not the intended use of SASUnit, the intended use is to test SAS programs which you want to do as I suppose.
Kind regards,
Andreas.
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
Hi all,
Do you see any issues using SASUnit in the proprietary code? Its GPL license
gives me some doubts what I can use it for my clients' work. AFAIK, linking
against any GPL'ed library means the end result should be covered by GPL,
what may come as surprise to a client who paid for the code and expects the
full IP rights. Does anybody have experience using SASUnit for the
proprietary development?
Thanks,
Anton.
Anton,
If you are going to use SASUnit as a testing tool for SAS programs you write for your client, you won't be linking those SAS programs against SASUnit. SASUnit does not become a part of the programs you deliver to your client. In the case your customer wants to receive also the test scripts you wrote (which I would always recommend to him) you do not have to distribute SASUnit to him, he can download it himself if he wants to run your test scripts. This is exactly the situation covered in the GPL FAQ (https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#CanIUseGPLToolsForNF) where they say that it is allowed to use tools under the GPL to create proprietary programs. We at HMS use SASUnit to test proprietary SAS programs very often, our customers are aware of this and none of them has objected so far.
If you, on the other hand, plan to incorporate parts of SASUnit into the code you write for and deliver to your client (for instance reusing some of the utility macros of SASUnit), this would be a case where the GPL would force you to put the whole work under the GPL. But this is not the intended use of SASUnit, the intended use is to test SAS programs which you want to do as I suppose.
Kind regards,
Andreas.