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Grit: Rewriting Git in Rust with agents

blog.gitbutler.com

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Re: Grit: Rewriting Git in Rust with agents

#231

Post by cmrdporcupine »

schacon wrote: post #210
Philpax wrote: post #11

> In looking at the code that the LLMs have produced for the project, especially given the pretty massive and widespread architectural changes needed to make the implementation libified and memory safe, we decided that the codebase is not a derivative work that would require carrying forward the GPL license and have decided to release the code under the MIT instead. Hmm. That's going to be interesting.

Well, there's lots of really interesting opinions here from a lot of armchair lawyers. To clarify, my stance on this is that the reimplementation did not copy protected expressions (Jplag reports less than 1.8% max similarity between the codebases), it's done in good faith, and it's what's best for the broader Git ecosystem (assuming Grit even becomes usable, which it's currently not purported to be). From a copyrigh…

My question here is not whether it's legally permissible. I'll leave that to others.

It's WTF is wrong with this next generation of devs ? ... that they have such a problem with the GPL that they think it's important to rewrite and relicense and take away a legal structure which is supposed to protect our free software?

I can imagine some concerns with Git being written in C.

I cannot understand any legitimate concerns with its license that it needs to change.

What does the GPL stop people doing with git? And if there are some... why are people trying to do that? And why would you work for free to help people do it? [Edit: I see, you're not working for free.]

Missing an 'f' in the project name.

Re: Grit: Rewriting Git in Rust with agents

#232

Post by sourcegrift »

nextaccountic wrote: post #20
Philpax wrote: post #11

> In looking at the code that the LLMs have produced for the project, especially given the pretty massive and widespread architectural changes needed to make the implementation libified and memory safe, we decided that the codebase is not a derivative work that would require carrying forward the GPL license and have decided to release the code under the MIT instead. Hmm. That's going to be interesting.

they would be just wrong. I hope someone with standing sues

Make a small contribution to git then sue

Re: Grit: Rewriting Git in Rust with agents

#233

Post by sunsunsunsun »

thewebguyd wrote: post #139
Philpax wrote: post #11

> In looking at the code that the LLMs have produced for the project, especially given the pretty massive and widespread architectural changes needed to make the implementation libified and memory safe, we decided that the codebase is not a derivative work that would require carrying forward the GPL license and have decided to release the code under the MIT instead. Hmm. That's going to be interesting.

Not a fan of this trend of "cleaning" GPL licensed software and releasing under permissive licenses. Also why I'm not a fan of UUtils nor Canonical's early adoption of it in Ubuntu. The intent here is extraction of all the value provided by copyleft projects without the obligation to give back. Wether it's technically legal or not, it's disgusting behavior IMO.

I agree, I certainly can't comment on the legality of this license laundering but I would call them an asshole.

Re: Grit: Rewriting Git in Rust with agents

#234

Post by sourcegrift »

schacon wrote: post #165
GreenDolphinSys wrote: post #162

This is simply plagiarism of GPL-licensed code, and license-washing as well. I can understand working backwards from a test suite, but this literally just reads the original source: https://github.com/gitbutlerapp/grit/blob/main/AGENTS.md#sou... LLM users seem to live in another world where stealing everything that isn't bolted down, and passing it off as their own work, is acceptable.

I see it differently. I look at it as if I had written this code myself, using this same approach. Look at the docs, look at the tests, look at the source, implement something that is interactively compatible but a very different approach. For example, this is exactly what I did when I tried to get SSH commit signing working properly in GitButler: https://blog.gitbutler.com/signing-commits-in-git-explained You can se…

Ignore the haters, this site is turning into MAGA

Re: Grit: Rewriting Git in Rust with agents

#235

Post by cmrdporcupine »

201984 wrote: post #143
schacon wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We're choosing a license that is usable by the entire community. Our goal is a linkable library, which makes GPL impossible. If we had chosen to go with LGPL or GPL with linking exception (like libgit2), it would have the same issue of changing the license, so we went with whatever was the most permissive so everyone could use it for anything if they wish. This has nothing to do with business - I hope I can get the p…

>We're choosing a license that is usable by the entire community. What a weaselly way to put it. A GPL library, as I'm sure you know, is perfectly usable by anyone including jujutsu and anyone else. They just have to also license under the GPL and this is no barrier to open source projects.

I love how he uses the word "community", effectively washing away what is really happening which is taking a community protected asset and turning it into a corporate one.

Ok, my coffee just kicked in and I'm incensed. Might go do an FSF donation.

Re: Grit: Rewriting Git in Rust with agents

#236

Post by cmrdporcupine »

sourcegrift wrote: post #234
schacon wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see it differently. I look at it as if I had written this code myself, using this same approach. Look at the docs, look at the tests, look at the source, implement something that is interactively compatible but a very different approach. For example, this is exactly what I did when I tried to get SSH commit signing working properly in GitButler: https://blog.gitbutler.com/signing-commits-in-git-explained You can se…

Ignore the haters, this site is turning into MAGA

My dude it's literally the opposite in this case.

Re: Grit: Rewriting Git in Rust with agents

#237

Post by mplanchard »

schacon wrote: post #210
Philpax wrote: post #11

> In looking at the code that the LLMs have produced for the project, especially given the pretty massive and widespread architectural changes needed to make the implementation libified and memory safe, we decided that the codebase is not a derivative work that would require carrying forward the GPL license and have decided to release the code under the MIT instead. Hmm. That's going to be interesting.

Well, there's lots of really interesting opinions here from a lot of armchair lawyers. To clarify, my stance on this is that the reimplementation did not copy protected expressions (Jplag reports less than 1.8% max similarity between the codebases), it's done in good faith, and it's what's best for the broader Git ecosystem (assuming Grit even becomes usable, which it's currently not purported to be). From a copyrigh…

Have you addressed anywhere why you chose not to keep the copyleft license? It burns a lot of goodwill to use an AI for what many people will see as copyright laundering, and git has done just fine with the GPL, so it doesn’t seem like a blocker for adoption. What do you get from stripping the copyleft?

Re: Grit: Rewriting Git in Rust with agents

#238

Post by galangalalgol »

NekkoDroid wrote: post #179
galangalalgol wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When we go a full year without a lpe in the linux kernel I'll start considering it...

How many of the LPE would rust even fix? They mostly seem logical errors and not memory or threading related race conditions to me.

This year, none of them. Historically most or all. So that is another caveat. If all future lpe are logic errors I'd start reconsidering the value proposition. I do actually like writing rust though. I don't feel like it slows me down. I also love the simplicity of c vim and gdb, though my first exposure was lattice on the amiga 1000. I wonder if strict typing makes it take fewer tokens to find bugs?

Re: Grit: Rewriting Git in Rust with agents

#239

Post by miohtama »

jbotz wrote: post #166
Philpax wrote: post #11

> In looking at the code that the LLMs have produced for the project, especially given the pretty massive and widespread architectural changes needed to make the implementation libified and memory safe, we decided that the codebase is not a derivative work that would require carrying forward the GPL license and have decided to release the code under the MIT instead. Hmm. That's going to be interesting.

A translation of a book to a different language is a derivative work. So a translation of a computer program to a different programming language is also. But if in the translation of the book you start altering the plot and the personalities of that characters, does it at some point become not a derivative work? What point? IANAL, and I have no real idea, but I imagine that point has been probed significantly in case…

Related, software API compability is not a derivate work, or eligible to protection, as ruled in the US and in the EU. Google, SAP R/3, etc. cases.

Or SCO Vs IBM.

If everything would be a derivate work we would not Linux.

Re: Grit: Rewriting Git in Rust with agents

#240

Post by WD-42 »

jbotz wrote: post #166
Philpax wrote: post #11

> In looking at the code that the LLMs have produced for the project, especially given the pretty massive and widespread architectural changes needed to make the implementation libified and memory safe, we decided that the codebase is not a derivative work that would require carrying forward the GPL license and have decided to release the code under the MIT instead. Hmm. That's going to be interesting.

A translation of a book to a different language is a derivative work. So a translation of a computer program to a different programming language is also. But if in the translation of the book you start altering the plot and the personalities of that characters, does it at some point become not a derivative work? What point? IANAL, and I have no real idea, but I imagine that point has been probed significantly in case…

The agents.md says “here’s the git source code” https://github.com/gitbutlerapp/grit/blob/main/AGENTS.md#sou...

This isn’t even a question of training data, thy fed the full git source code directly to the llm.

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