open-core-licensing-demo

This repo demonstrates how open core can be achieved with Golang.

• oss.go contains the hello() function for open source use
• not_oss.go contains the hello() function for closed source use

Which one is used is determined by the build tag provided.

Some licenses, such as Mozilla Public License 2.0 (a weak copyleft license), allow for use OSS within 'larger works' of software, with the commercial code present in separate files.

This is how Hashicorp's Open Core Vault product works. There are no-op open source stubs for enterprise features: https://github.com/hashicorp/vault/blob/d341378c6353a9e0f776ca024215ea11be8672df/vault/policy_util.go

In practice, an enterprise build would involve copying in the enterprise files, and then running the build with the enterprise tag.

Demonstration

dustin $ go run hello
hello from oss!

dustin $ go run -tags=enterprise hello
hello from enterprise!