flexlm license.dat
Hi
You should get all info reading the manuals, like this one:
**broken link removed**
But basically you have 2 kinds of licenses:
1- Floating
2- Nodelocked
Floating licenses, as the name implies, may not reside on the same machine you are running the software, but "floating" on the network. The license is accessed through a Host@port.
On the server (the one containing the license) a Service is started, and features are "served" in acount basis by the LM service. If you got per example 1 license to edit and one to plot, you can edit in one machine while ploting elsewhere, but if you grab both licenses, nobody else can use them.
The floating license may be also tied to a hardware dongle, that must then reside in a port of the license server.
Nodelocked licenses are theoretically tied to the current NODE or to the current Machine. Are normally UNCOUNTED and can only be used by the machine they reside on.
You may also append any ammount of nodelocked licensed into the same license.dat file. But for Floating licenses, as the access/daemon may be different, its a good practice to place all in different folders. The services may be started as the servers boot, and are managed by the lmtools facility.
Another thing not to be misunderstood are the HostIDs. HostID is the ID of the Host where the license is valid. It can be a lot of things, like Dongles, Networt Card Addresses, HardDisk Serial Number, Demo or even ANY...
Licenses have also a Version number and Expiry date.
Every info is then crypted into a string named KEY, and afore the default crypting scheme, globes has provided links to custom host ids, custom crypt algorithms and other vendors sha/rc5 stuff.
Theoretically, a license is inviolable, so the vendor can control sw usage and sell features that are enabled as paid for or limitied in some ways.
As we know, there is no way of realy protecting a sw, because it must be sometime be readable by the cpu itself, so reversing is always possible, thus bypassing any scheme. But for the average user, should work.
We still hope that sometime vendors will take another aproach on this issue. Software, like EDA tools, are realy costly for us that pay for them, but basically we have not seen any realy big improvement, just changings in protection schemes, as kids broke them. This is why nobody should discuss openly any of these protections anymore. Let the cicle be a little more longer. Take CDRWin or FlashFXP per example.
Remember that sometimes cheap sw is the best way to be the leader. Or don't you agree that Mr. Gates was the cleaverst of all ? He killed all others, like cpm86, by this simple command: format A:/S
lol :lol: