The GNU Project () is a free software, mass collaboration project announced by Richard Stallman on September 27, 1983. Its goal is to give computer users freedom and control in their use of their computers and computing devices by collaboratively developing and publishing software that gives everyone the rights to freely run the software, copy and distribute it, study it, and modify it.

(GAS) A Unix assembler for the GNU project. Many CPU types are handled and COFF and IEEE-695 formats are supported as well as standard a.out. Current version 2.2 ported to Sun-3, Sun-4, i386, 386BSD, BSD/386, Linux, PS/2-AIX, VAX, Ultrix, BSD, VMS. The assembler has been merged with GNU Binutils. E-mail: <bug-gnu-utils@gnu.org>. (1995-04-18)

<software, legal> A pejorative name for some versions of the GNU project copyleft or General Public License (GPL), which requires that any tools or application programs incorporating copylefted code must be source-distributed on the same terms as GNU code. Thus it is alleged that the copyleft "infects" software generated with GNU tools, which may in turn infect other software that reuses any of its code. Copyright law limits the scope of the GPL to "programs textually incorporating significant amounts of GNU code" so GPL is only passed on if actual GNU source is transmitted. This used to be the case with the Bison parser skeleton until its licence was fixed. http://org.gnu.de/manual/bison/html_chapter/bison_2.html#SEC2. [Jargon File] (1999-07-14)

<spelling> It's spelled "General Public License". (In the UK, "licence" is a noun and "license" is a verb (like "advice"/"advise") but in the US both are spelled "license"). (1995-05-12)

<language> The extension of C compiled by gcc. (1997-09-30)

<tool, compression> The decompression utility corresponding to gzip. In operating systems with links, gunzip is just a link to gzip and its function can be invoked by passing a "-d" flag to gzip. (1996-01-03)

<tool, compression> GNU compression utility. Gzip reduces the size of the named files using Lempel-Ziv {LZ77 compression}. Whenever possible, each file is replaced by one with the filename extension ".gz". Compressed files can be restored to their original form using gzip -d or gunzip or zcat. The Unix "compress" utility is patented (by two separate patents, in fact) and is thus shunned by the GNU Project since it is not free software. They have therefore chosen gzip, which is free of any known software patents and which tends to compress better anyway. All compressed files in the GNU anonymous FTP area (gnu.org/pub/gnu) are in gzip format and their names end in ".gz" (as opposed to "compress"-compressed files, which end in ".Z"). Gzip can uncompress "compress"-compressed files and "pack" files (which end in ".z"). The decompression algorithms are not patented, only compression is. The gzip program is available from any GNU archive site in shar, tar, or gzipped tar format (for those who already have a prior version of gzip and want faster data transmission). It works on virtually every Unix system, MS-DOS, OS/2 and VMS.

General Public Licence (Reference: GNU)

Graphics Programming Language

<legal> (GPL, note US spelling) The licence applied to most software from the Free Software Foundation and the GNU project and other authors who choose to use it. The licences for most software are designed to prevent users from sharing or changing it. By contrast, the GNU General Public License is intended to guarantee the freedom to share and change free software - to make sure the software is free for all its users. The GPL is designed to make sure that anyone can distribute copies of free software (and charge for this service if they wish); that they receive source code or can get it if they want; that they can change the software or use pieces of it in new free programs; and that they know they can do these things. The GPL forbids anyone to deny others these rights or to ask them to surrender the rights. These restrictions translate to certain responsibilities for those who distribute copies of the software or modify it. See also General Public Virus. (1994-10-27)