User manual

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.
Finally, software patents pose a constant threat to the
existence of
any free program. We wish to make sure that a company
cannot
effectively restrict the users of a free program by
obtaining a
restrictive license from a patent holder. Therefore, we
insist that
any patent license obtained for a version of the library
must be
consistent with the full freedom of use specified in this
license.
Most GNU software, including some libraries, is covered
by the
ordinary GNU General Public License. This license, the
GNU Lesser
General Public License, applies to certain designated
libraries, and
is quite different from the ordinary General Public
License. We use
this license for certain libraries in order to permit linking
those
libraries into non-free programs.
When a program is linked with a library, whether
statically or using
a shared library, the combination of the two is legally
speaking a
combined work, a derivative of the original library. The
ordinary
General Public License therefore permits such linking
only if the
entire combination fits its criteria of freedom. The Lesser
General
Public License permits more lax criteria for linking other
code with
the library.
We call this license the "Lesser" General Public License
because it
does Less to protect the user's freedom than the ordinary
General
Public License. It also provides other free software
developers Less
of an advantage over competing non-free programs.
These disadvantages
are the reason we use the ordinary General Public
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