Using glib in an iOS app on the App Store

Hi everyone! Nice to meet you all!

I saw this was already asked in similar, but still different contexts, so I thought I’d ask to get a definitive answer.

I’m building an iOS app to distribute on the App Store, and I’d like to use an open source library in it that uses glib as one of its dependencies.

The library itself is also LGPL-2.1, and it deeply integrates glib in its implementation. Given the nature of software distribution on iOS, I’m wondering what my obligations for complying with the LGPL are (or if even it’s even allowed in the first place).

The author of the library has told me as long as I ensure any changes I make to the library are made public, and I take steps to dynamically link the framework to the main binary, that is sufficient for his expectations of compliance.

What about glib? What is GNOME’s current position on adopting its LGPL-licensed libraries in iOS apps and what are its compliance expectations?

Thanks so much for your time!

I think as long as you will honour licensing terms it will be fine.

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Hi Victoria! Thanks for the reply!

That’s definitely true, and I intend to honor the terms as best as I can.

However, the core intent of the LGPL is that users are able to swap out the library in the hosting app in order to test out their own separate builds of that library. And due to the nature of code-signing on iOS, and the general locked down nature of the App Store, I’m not sure how feasible this really is for that platform.

So as such, I’d love to know what the expectations the GNOME team would have of iOS apps on the App Store adopting their LGPL code.

There are no expectations, outside of the ones required by the license of each project.

The only people I know that use GLib on iOS are the GStreamer folks, so you may want to ask on their Discourse.

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Awesome! Thanks Emmanuele! I’ll check their Discourse out!