The GDBM is GPL 3 licensed and incompatible with PHP license

[petk]

Description

Following #15882 there is a similar issue:

./configure --with-gdbm
make

It links the GDBM which makes PHP non-distributable.

I think all these GPL-3 licensed dependencies should be simply removed to make it easier to manage.

PHP Version

Any

Operating System

*nix

[Girgias]

But we are not distributing GDBM, we are only linking against it.

[petk]

In short, from what I read, the main issue and ambiguity here is linking (either static or dynamic) because then PHP should be relicensed as GPL 3. Basically, PHP with ext/dba and GDBM enabled can't be used for anything but something on some personal computer for some testing or something. Which makes PHP unusable.

[cmb69]

Given that there likely will be a PHP 8.5, I suggest to deprecate GDBM support; if we get complaints, we can still reconsider. I don't think that removal of GDBM support is a big problem; there are (possibly better) alternatives available (QDBM and LMDB).

[petk]

Hm, ~2 years to fix this issue then.