libgcrypt - The GNU crypto library ------------------------------------ Version 1.1 Copyright 2000, 2002 Free Software Foundation, Inc. This file is free software; as a special exception the author gives unlimited permission to copy and/or distribute it, with or without modifications, as long as this notice is preserved. This file is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THIS IS A DEVELOPMENT VERSION, THE FIRST STABLE VERSION WILL BE 1.2.0. Overview -------- Libgcrypt is a general purpose crypto library based on the code used in GnuPG. We can't start with a new version number because libgcrypt was part of gnupg 1.1 and some applications already used it and tested for the version number. We believe that the API can stay as it is, except that new functions may be added in the future. CVS --- If you are using the CVS version, make sure that you have the latest automake (I am using Debian Sid) and run ./autogen.sh to create configure. Mailing List ------------ You may want to join the developer's mailing list gcrypt-devel@gnupg.org by sending mail with a subject of "subscribe" to gcrypt-devel-request@gnupg.org. An archive of this list is available at http://lists.gnupg.org . License ------- Most of this library is distributed under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL); see the file COPYING.LIB for the actual terms. However some parts are distributed under the GNU General Public License (GPL) so if you configure Libgcrypt to include these modules, you have to comply with the conditions of the GPL as found in the file COPYING. The modules under the GPL are: rndunix - Entropy gatherer for Unices without a /dev/random rndw32 - Entropy gatherer for MS Windows The documentation is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; see the file COPYING.DOC for the terms. This library used to be available under the GPL - this was changed with version 1.1.7 with the rationale that there are now many free crypto libraries available and many of them come with capabilities similar to Libcrypt. We decided that to foster the use of cryptography in Free Software an LGPLed library would make more sense because it avoids problems due to license incompatibilities between some Free Software licenses and the GPL. Please note that in many cases it is better for a library to be licensed under the GPL, so that it provides an advantage for free software projects. The Lesser GPL is so named because it does less to protect the freedom of the users of the code that it covers. See http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/why-not-lgpl.html for more explanation.