legacy/trunk/README

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                               libburn.pykix.org
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This all is under GPL. Wether it can become LGPL is currently very unclear.
(So for now see explanation and GPL reference at the end of this text)
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Libburn. By Derek Foreman <derek@signalmarketing.com> and
            Ben Jansens <xor@orodu.net>
Copyright (C) 2002-2006  Derek Foreman and Ben Jansens

Mario Danic <mario.danic@gmail.com>, Luke Biddell <luke.biddell@gmail.com>,
Anant Narayanan <anant@kix.in> , Thomas Schmitt <scdbackup@gmx.net>
Copyright (C) 2006 Mario Danic, Luke Biddell, Anant Narayanan, Thomas Schmitt

This libburn toplevel README (C) 2006 Thomas Schmitt 
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Overview of libburn.pykix.org :

Libburn is an open-source library for reading, mastering and writing
optical discs. For now this means only CD-R and CD-RW.

The project comprises of several more or less interdependent parts which
together strive to be a usable foundation for application development.
These are libraries, language bindings, and middleware binaries which emulate
classical (and valuable) Linux tools.

Our scope is currently Linux 2.4 and 2.6 and we will have a hard time to widen
this for now, because of our history. The project could need advise from or
membership of skilled kernel people and people who know how to talk CD/DVD
drives into doing things.

We do have a workable code base for burning data CDs, though. The burn API is
quite comprehensively documented and can be used to build a presentable
application.
We do have a functional binary which emulates parts of cdrecord in order to
prove that usability, and in order to allow you to explore libburn's scope
by help of existing cdrecord frontends.

The project components (list subject to growth, hopefully):

- libburn  the library by which preformatted data get onto optical media.
           It uses either /dev/sgN (e.g. on kernel 2.4 with ide-scsi) or
           /dev/hdX (e.g. on kernel 2.6).
           libburn is the foundation of our cdrecord emulation.

- libisofs the library to pack up hard disk files and directories into a
           ISO 9660 disk image. This may then be brought to CD via libburn.
           libisofs is to be the foundation of our upcoming mkisofs emulation.

- cdrskin  a limited cdrecord compatibility wrapper for libburn.
           cdrecord is a powerful GPL'ed burn program included in Joerg
           Schilling's cdrtools. cdrskin strives to be a second source for
           the services traditionally provided by cdrecord.
           cdrskin does not contain any bytes copied from cdrecord's sources.
           Many bytes have been copied from the message output of cdrecord
           runs, though.
           See cdrskin/README for more.

- test     a collection of application gestures and examples given by the
           authors of the library features. cdrskin for example originally
           emerged from test/burniso.c and you can see traces of my first
           steps in there. Explore these examples if you look for inspiration.

We plan to be a responsive upstream. Bear with us. We are still practicing.
Our build system is based on autotools which seem to be a bit smarter than me.

To build libburn and its subprojects it should be sufficient to go into
its toplevel directory and execute
   ./bootstrap  (needed if you downloaded from SVN and not a release tarball)
   ./configure
   make

To make the libraries accessible for running resp. developing applications 
   make install


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Project history as far as known to me:

- Founded in 2002 as it seems. See mailing list archives
     http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/libburn/
  The site of this founder team is reachable and offers download of a
  (somewhat outdated) tarball and from CVS :
     http://icculus.org/burn/
  Copyright holders and most probably founders:
  Derek Foreman and Ben Jansens.

- I came to using libburn in 2005. Founded the cdrskin project and submitted
  necessary patches which were accepted or implemented better. Except one
  remaining patch which prevented cdrskin from using vanilla libburn from CVS.
  The cdrskin project site is reachable and offers download of the heavily
  patched (elsewise outdated) tarball under the name  cdrskin-0.1.2  :
     http://scdbackup.sourceforge.net/cdrskin_eng.html
  It has meanwhile moved to use vanilla libburn.pykix.org , though.
  Version 0.1.4 constitutes the first release of this kind.

- In Juli 2006 our team mate Mario Danic announced a revival of libburn
  which by about nearly everybody else was perceived as unfriendly fork.
  Derek Foreman four days later posted a message which expressed his
  discontent.
  The situation first caused me to publically regret it and then - after i
  got the opportunity to move in with cdrskin - gave me true reason to
  personally apologize to Derek Foreman, Ben Jansens and the contibutors at 
  icculus.org/burn. Posted to both projects:
    http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/libburn/2006-August/000446.html
    http://mailman-mail1.webfaction.com/pipermail/libburn-hackers/2006-August/000024.html

- Mid August 2006 project cdrskin established a branch office in libburn
  so that all maintainers of our tools have one single place to get the
  current (at least slightely) usable coordinated versions of everything.
  Project cdrskin will live forth independendly for a while but it is committed
  to stay in sync with libburn.pykix.org (or some successor, if ever).
  cdrskin is also committed to support  icculus.org/burn  if the pending fork
  is made reality by content changes in that project. It will cease to maintain
  a patched version of  icculus.org/burn  though. Precondition for a new
  release of cdrskin on base of  icculus.org/burn  would be the pending
  "whitelist patch" therefore.
  I would rather prefer if both projects find consense and merge, or at least
  cooperate. I have not given up hope totally, yet.
  I, personally, will honor any approach.

 

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It is my understanding that you may put standalone binaries of our unchanged
code on any suitable system if you only tell the user that the source is
available for free in the internet. Refer to: http://libburn.pykix.org

If you link to the libraries or if you make changes in our source, you will 
currently have to release your own programs under GPL and nothing else, i fear.
As it looks, no single one of us currently has the right to issue any other
license.
You may submit source changes which affect our standalone binaries and if
they get included you may distribute binaries derived from our new code base.

signed: Thomas Schmitt (and his understanding of GPL), author of this README.
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    This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
    it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
    the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
    (at your option) any later version.

    This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
    but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
    MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
    GNU General Public License for more details.

    You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
    along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
    Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307  USA