DJJP coff

[Astrid]

I'm intend to use coff for my binaries.
I get the coff data structures from Delorie.
It will be a copyright problem if I use them in a header file?

[AR]

If you copy and paste the code then you are subject to the DJGPP licence which is probably GPL as GCC is. If your code is GPL then there isn't a problem, if it isn't then you'll have to create your own implementation.

[Solar]

From DJGPP/includes/coff.h:

/* Copyright (C) 2003 DJ Delorie, see COPYING.DJ for details */

From DJGPP/copying.dj:

Source code copyright DJ Delorie is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public Licence, with the following exceptions:

• Sources used to build crt0.o, gcrt0.o, libc.a, libdbg.a, and libemu.a are distributed under the terms of the GNU Library General Public License, rather than the GNU GPL.
• Any existing copyright or authorship information in any given source file must remain intact. If you modify a source file, a notice to that effect must be added to the authorship information in the source file.
• Runtime binaries, as provided by DJ in DJGPP, may be distributed without sources ONLY if the recipient is given sufficient information to obtain a copy of djgpp themselves. This primarily applies to go32-v2.exe, emu387.dxe, and stubedit.exe.
• Runtime objects and libraries, as provided by DJ in DJGPP, when linked into an application, may be distributed without sources ONLY if the recipient is given sufficient information to obtain a copy of djgpp themselves. This primarily applies to crt0.o and libc.a.

That means you're basically stuck with the GPL - which is great if you want your OS to be GPL, which is s****y if you don't.

You can, of course, take the information on the COFF structures from the DJGPP sources, and implement your own includes. You stand a fair chance of not getting into troubles that way, but me not being a lawyer I won't give you any guarantees on that.