iTWire - Rocky Linux outlines ways to legally obtain Red Hat source code
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Wednesday, 05 July 2023 07:45
Rocky Linux outlines ways to legally obtain Red Hat source code Featured
By Sam Varghese
Rocky Linux, a project set up by the founder of the CentOS project, Gregory Kurtzer, has outlined what it says are ways to legally obtain source code for Red Hat's enterprise Linux distribution, following that company's 21 June announcement about fresh curbs on access to the source.
In a blog post titled "Keeping open source open", the Rocky Linux project said it now had two options for obtaining RHEL source code: through UBI container images and through pay-per-use public cloud instances.
Kurtzer set up Rocky Linux after Red Hat, in December 2020, shut down the CentOS project which it had acquired in 2014. CentOS, which began life in 2002, was providing a version of RHEL minus the trademarks which are the only proprietary part of the distribution.
On 21 June, Red Hat further tightened its grip on RHEL source code, saying it would make source code only available to those who were customers of the company. It said that CentOS Stream, which is upstream to RHEL, would be the only way to obtain source code. This source would, however, always predate the RHEL source and this be out of date.
The Rocky Linux blog post pointed out that after the December 2020 incident, it had been obtaining the RHEL source code from the CentOS Git repository, as recommended by Red Hat.
"However, this repository no longer hosts all of the versions corresponding to RHEL. Consequently, we now have to gather the source code from multiple sources, including CentOS Stream, pristine upstream packages, and RHEL SRPMs," the post said.
"Moreover, Red Hat’s Terms of Service and End User Licence Agreements impose conditions that attempt to hinder legitimate customers from exercising their rights as guaranteed by the GPL.
"While the community debates whether this violates the GPL, we firmly believe that such agreements violate the spirit and purpose of open source. As a result, we refuse to agree with them, which means we must obtain the SRPMs through channels that adhere to our principles and uphold our rights."
It provided the background to the latest developments, saying: "When we first started, we discussed our model and mission, and we decided not to bisect the Enterprise Linux community.
"Instead, in the spirit of open source principles and standards, we created something compatible with Red Hat Enterprise Linux. By adhering to this approach, we adhere to a single standard for Enterprise Linux and align ourselves with the original goals of CentOS.
"However, Red Hat has recently expressed their perspective that they 'do not find value in a RHEL rebuild'. While we believe this view is narrow-minded, Red Hat has taken a strong stance and limited access to the sources for RHEL to only their paying customers. These sources primarily consist of upstream open source project packages that are not owned by Red Hat."
The post said UBI container images were based on RHEL and obtainable from multiple sources, including Docker Hub.
"Using the UBI image, it is easily possible to obtain Red Hat sources reliably and unencumbered. We have validated this through OCI (Open Container Initiative) containers and it works exactly as expected," the post said.
"Another method that we will leverage is pay-per-use public cloud instances. With this, anyone can spin up RHEL images in the cloud and thus obtain the source code for all packages and errata.
"This is the easiest for us to scale as we can do all of this through CI pipelines, spinning up cloud images to obtain the sources via DNF, and post to our Git repositories automatically."
Red Hat, which was acquired by IBM in 2019, has faced a great deal of flak for its 21 June decision. Mike McGrath, the company's vice-president of Core Platforms Engineering, who made the announcement, had to issue a second post "clarifying" the company's position.
The Rocky Linux project pointed out that the two methods it had outlined for obtaining RHEL source code legally were possible because of the power of the GPL. The reference was to the GNU Project's General Public Licence which is defined as "a series of widely used free software licences that guarantee end users the four freedoms to run, study, share, and modify the software".
"No one can prevent redistribution of GPL software," the Rocky Linux post said. "To reiterate, both of these methods enable us to legitimately obtain RHEL binaries and SRPMs without compromising our commitment to open source software or agreeing to TOS or EULA limitations that impede our rights.
"Our legal advisers have reassured us that we have the right to obtain the source to any binaries we receive, ensuring that we can continue advancing Rocky Linux in line with our original intentions."
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