Inline code in C++

If you want them to be inlined then the library user will need the code. I think your two options are:

1) Change the license to allow for the inlined code.
2) Disable inline for the restricted license. I would probably do this by #defining a PUBLIC_INLINE (or something) that would be 'inline' in your open licenses, and nothing for the closed license.

No. You'll have to make them non-inline (inline is only a compiler hint anyway). Create an additional header with the function declarations and do compile your .inl file as if it were a normal C++ file (may require telling your compiler it really is a C++ file), using the preprocessor to eliminate the inline keywords (having an INLINE macro might help).

It can be considered 're-engineering', but as far as such things go, it shouldn't be a major problem.

Foo.h
Foo.inl

Your code should include "Foo.h" and never explicitely include "Foo.inl". If USE_INLINE_FUNCTIONS is not defined (or some other conditional compilation trick), "Foo.inl" won't be included and will have to be compiled separately. Add a suitable target to your project (or makefile) so that they do get compiled in. It should be possible to have the project also take care of #defineing USE_INLINE_FUNCTIONS when the suitable target is selected.

Quote:

Original post by Graham11 Hi All, I've been working on a C++ library for some time, and have many inlined methods, often in their own *.inl files. One of our licensing models doesn't include sourcecode, but such inline methods ARE effectively sourcecode and would seem necessary for the distribution. Is there any way I can avoid re-engineering the project if I do not want a library-only release to include such inlined information? Best wishes, Graham

I assume it's an SDK and you deliver dll's; you still need the header files, isn't that technically source code? Can the .inl stuff be considered part of the headers then?