A
GPL linking exception modifies the
GNU General Public License (GPL) in a way that enables software projects which provide
library code to be "
linked to" the programs that use them, without applying the full terms of the GPL to the using program. Linking is the technical process of connecting code in a library to the using code, to produce a single executable file. It is performed either at
compile time or
run-time in order to produce functional machine-readable code. There is a public perception, unsupported by any legal precedent or citation, that without applying the
linking exception, code linked with GPL code may only be done using a GPL-compatible license. The license of the GNU Classpath project explicitly includes a statement to that effect.