diff --git a/FAQ.md b/FAQ.md index 1527deea..20e09440 100644 --- a/FAQ.md +++ b/FAQ.md @@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ * [How do I create an alias for ripgrep on Windows?](#rg-alias-windows) * [How do I create a PowerShell profile?](#powershell-profile) * [How do I pipe non-ASCII content to ripgrep on Windows?](#pipe-non-ascii-windows) +* [How is ripgrep licensed?](#license) * [Can ripgrep replace grep?](#posix4ever) * [What does the "rip" in ripgrep mean?](#intentcountsforsomething) @@ -470,6 +471,34 @@ will also reset when PowerShell is restarted, so you can add that line to your profile as well if you want to make the setting permanent. +

+How is ripgrep licensed? +

+ +ripgrep is dual licensed under the +[Unlicense](https://unlicense.org/) +and MIT licenses. Specifically, you may use ripgrep under the terms of either +license. + +The reason why ripgrep is dual licensed this way is two-fold: + +1. I, as ripgrep's author, would like to participate in a small bit of + ideological activism by promoting the Unlicense's goal: to disclaim + copyright monopoly interest. +2. I, as ripgrep's author, would like as many people to use rigprep as + possible. Since the Unlicense is not a proven or well known license, ripgrep + is also offered under the MIT license, which is ubiquitous and accepted by + almost everyone. + +More specifically, ripgrep and all its dependencies are compatible with this +licensing choice. In particular, ripgrep's dependencies (direct and transitive) +will always be limited to permissive licenses. That is, ripgrep will never +depend on code that is not permissively licensed. This means rejecting any +dependency that uses a copyleft license such as the GPL, LGPL, MPL or any of +the Creative Commons ShareAlike licenses. Whether the license is "weak" +copyleft or not does not matter; ripgrep will **not** depend on it. + +

Can ripgrep replace grep?