MAMEWorld Forums - Programming - Re: What is the policy on distributing patches?

> What is the general policy for this?

Do what Google, Inc. (an actual company with actual lawyers) did with their Native Client MAME port and you won't be too wrong.

> The MAME license says that the "complete source code" for the modified version of
> MAME must be included. Does this mean that posting the patch is not sufficient if I
> want to post binaries and that I have to post the fully patched MAME source as well?

It is strongly recommended that you post the base source zip plus your patch, as separate downloads.

> In any case, is it sufficient to put a link to the source on the site that
> distributes the binaries or do I have to package the binaries in a way that implicity
> includes the source - such as together in a .zip file?

Source does not have to be included with binary downloads; however I don't quite understand what your binary downloads would be given the scope and intent of your project so I can't give a definitive answer.

> Does that mean that if the MAME code is built into a shared library (.so or .dll),
> these license requirements for the programs that link against MAME are included?

Yes. You will bring down the wrath of MAMEdev if you ever link any part of MAME against closed-source, for instance. This is why we explicitly endorse ClientServerMAME and explicitly condemn Kaillera (I mean, besides that the latter is also an exploit-ridden piece of junk).