RE: Open Source FLEXlm?

[Bill Bogstad <bogstad@pobox.com>]

>My original post "is there a open source FLEXlm" has been
>turned into "what should be free or not". Stop please, or create a new
>subject. 
>
>The reason I want a license manager is not to control access to software,
>but to have another tool to manage it. A tool to gather data so I can
>make better informed desicions. For example, I'd like to be able
>to answer the following questions (which I believe FLEXlm can answer):
>(1) Who is using gcc-2.8.1?
>    That allows me to upgrade people who need it.
>(2) What's the most used piece of software in our company?
>    This allows me to focus our resources in researching the right tools.
>(3) How many different software packages are we actually using?
>(4) And sure, control access to certain applications, for security reasons
>etc.
>(5)...(6)...

	It's been a LONG while, but I believe that a FLEXlm like
system would require source code changes to the applications you want
to monitor.  That seems like much more work then you need to do items
1, 2, and 3.  One issue is that I can see wanting to do those things
for an application which is only available as a binary.  I see a
FLEXlm solution as being practically impossible in that case.  Might I
suggest a simple shell script to replace the user-visible executable
which logs whatever information you want to gather and then uses the
name underwhich it was invoked to exec the 'real' binary which has
been copied to a different directory.  This can easily do your top
three items.

	Accomplishing #4 probably can't be done with a shell script,
but it's still not clear that you need a license manager.  I think
what you want is more like an authentication system for access to
executables.  No coordination with other people's use of an application
is required so I see no need for a license daemon.  I can't
decipher the requirements for #5, and #6. :-)

	 Just my 2 cents.


				Bill Bogstad
				bogstad@pobox.com