Licence

pb-diff is licensed to a named person, one computer at a time. Help ▸ Licence opens the Licence window, and pb-diff opens it on its own at start-up when there is no valid licence: until there is one, no comparison opens. Work already open when a licence stops being valid - moved to another computer, suspended, ended - stays open and can still be saved.

A computer, here, is the pair computer and Windows user: two people who share a computer each activate their own licence.

With no licence at all the window offers three things: Start a 30-day trial, Enter a licence key and Buy.

Start a 30-day trial

The trial is the whole of pb-diff - the desktop application and pb-diff-cli - for 30 days on this computer, from the moment it starts. Choose Start a 30-day trial: a window of its own opens, with your details on the left and the licence terms on the right.

• E-mail address: yours. It is checked for its form only, and nothing is sent to it to confirm.
• First name, Last name, Company and Country: all required. The country is chosen from the list; type its first letters to find it. A notice under them says where these details go - to RESTORE S.R.L., which makes pb-diff, and to its authorised distributors, to follow up your trial - and Privacy policy beside it opens how they are handled.
• I accept the pb-diff licence terms and the specific approval of their clauses: both required, as The licence terms explains.
• RESTORE and its authorised distributors may contact me about pb-diff offers and news: optional, and not ticked unless you tick it. Without it, nobody sends you offers.

Privacy policy opens how RESTORE handles these data. Choose Start the trial: the computer must be connected to the Internet, and the trial starts at once. The trial's window closes, and the Licence window shows the address the trial was started with, when it ends and how many days are left. If the trial cannot start, its window says why and stays open to be corrected; Cancel closes it, and what you typed is still there if you open it again before closing the Licence window. Within a quarter of an hour pb-diff support writes to that address, once: when the trial ends, and the three ways to reach support during it - Help ▸ Report a Problem, an e-mail to support@pbdiff.com, and the support portal. That message is about the trial you started, so it comes whether or not you ticked the box about offers and news.

An e-mail address can start one trial, and so can a computer. If either already had one, the trial's window says so and offers Buy; write to info@pbdiff.com if you think it is wrong. If the licensing service cannot be reached, the window says so: write to info@pbdiff.com and RESTORE sends you a trial key, which you enter with Enter a licence key.

When the trial ends pb-diff stops opening comparisons, as with any licence that ends; what is open stays open and can be saved. The window then offers Buy and Enter a licence key.

The licence terms

The licence terms are governed by Italian law, under which some of their clauses - limits of liability and warranty, suspension, the courts of Milan and others - bind you only if you approve them specifically, apart from accepting the terms as a whole (Articles 1341 and 1342 of the Italian Civil Code). So the window asks for two things, both required and neither ticked for you:

• I accept the pb-diff licence terms. Licence terms below the boxes opens them.
• Under Articles 1341 and 1342 of the Italian Civil Code, I specifically approve these clauses of the licence terms, followed by the clauses it approves, each by its number and title.

They are asked when you start a trial and when you activate a key - one you bought, or one RESTORE sent you. Once you have approved a version of the terms on this computer, you are not asked again for it: a key bought after a trial on the same computer activates straight away.

When the terms change, pb-diff asks again the next time it starts, with the new version, and nothing stops meanwhile: you can close the window and keep working, and you are asked again at the next start. A subscription you have paid for goes on under the terms you accepted for it; the new ones apply from its renewal. If the licensing service cannot be reached when you activate a key, the key is activated anyway and the terms are asked for at the next start.

What is recorded, with the licence on RESTORE's licensing server: a fingerprint of this computer, the version of the terms, when you accepted them and when you approved their clauses - nothing else. It is kept as long as the licence and ten years after, so that RESTORE can show which text was accepted; a trial's is deleted with the trial.

Buy

Buy opens pbdiff.com/buy, which takes you to the shop. It is offered with no licence and during a trial. The licence key you receive is entered with Enter a licence key, on the same computer: it replaces the trial at once, with nothing to reinstall, and your settings stay as they are.

What the window shows

The first line says whether pb-diff is licensed and, if not, why: never activated, the subscription ended, the licence suspended, moved to another computer, not verified online for 7 days, or a licence certificate that is not valid here - copied from another computer, say. Below it:

• Licensed to: the person and organisation the licence was issued to; for a trial, Started with and the e-mail address.
• Kind: a subscription, a 30-day trial, an internal licence, or a beta licence, which is for testing pb-diff and says when it ends.
• Subscription ends: when the licence stops being valid, unless it is renewed; for a trial, Trial ends, with the days left.
• This computer: the name given to this computer when it was activated, when its licence was last verified online, and until when it stays licensed without connecting.
• Licensing service: the server pb-diff asks.

Activate this computer

Choose Enter a licence key, paste the key you received into Licence key, accept the licence terms and approve their clauses if the window asks (see The licence terms), and choose Activate. The computer must be connected to the Internet. Name for this computer is optional: a name of your choosing, such as office laptop, shown instead of dates if the licence is ever moved from here.

If the licence is already active on another computer, pb-diff names that computer - by its name, or by when it was activated and last verified - and asks whether to move the licence here. Yes moves it: the other computer stops being licensed the next time it checks online and says where the licence went, without closing anything open there. A computer can hold one trial, ever.

Deactivate, and Check now

Deactivate frees the licence from this computer, so it can be activated on another one without moving it. It needs the Internet, and pb-diff opens no comparison here afterwards until the licence is activated again.

Check now verifies the licence online at once. pb-diff does it by itself at start-up and then about once a day, in the background.

A licence that is refused when you think it should not be, or any other problem with one, is a question for support: see Getting help and reporting a problem.

Working without the Internet

A licence is proved by a certificate kept on this computer, valid for 7 days from its last online verification. Without a connection pb-diff keeps working until those 7 days are over; connecting again renews it. The certificate is kept per Windows user under %LOCALAPPDATA%\pb-diff\licence. Uninstalling pb-diff leaves it in place, unless you ask the uninstaller to remove your settings and data; the licence then stays assigned to this computer in the licensing service, so choose Deactivate first if it is to be used elsewhere.

Updates

Help ▸ Check for Updates asks whether a later version exists and, if one does, offers to open its download page; otherwise a message says that this is the latest version, or why the question could not be asked. pb-diff also asks at start-up, at most once a day, and says something only when there is a later version. It never downloads or installs anything by itself. A tester's licence also hears of beta builds and release candidates, and so does a trial until the first stable release, because every build until then is a beta build. A licence that is offered releases only says so when it runs a beta build, rather than calling that build the latest version.

If this computer's clock is more than five minutes from the right time, pb-diff cannot trust the licensing service's answers, which carry the time they were given: the Licence window and the update check then say that the clock is wrong. Set the date and time right - in a virtual machine, a clock left behind by a suspended session is the usual cause - and try again.

What pb-diff sends

The licence key, a fingerprint of this computer and Windows user from which neither can be read back, the name you gave this computer if you gave one, and, for the update check, the version, the commit it was built from and whether it is a beta. Nothing else: not the computer's name, not your user name, and nothing about the files you compare.

Starting a trial also sends, once, the e-mail address, first and last name, company and country you gave, whether you agreed to be contacted, the versions of the licence terms and of the consent sentence the window showed, when you accepted the terms and approved their clauses, and the version of pb-diff. They go to RESTORE's licensing server in the European Union, which records them with the date, so that one address holds one trial. RESTORE passes your details, and whether you agreed to receive offers, to its authorised distributors, to follow up your trial; without your agreement they send you no offers. The privacy policy names them. A trial's record is deleted 24 months after the trial ends. To withdraw your consent, or to object to the follow-up, write to info@pbdiff.com.

Accepting the terms with a key, or when they change, sends the licence key, the fingerprint, the version of the terms and when you accepted them and approved their clauses.

Help ▸ Report a Problem sends, only when you choose Send, the report you wrote with the licence key, the fingerprint, the address to reply to, the version and commit of pb-diff, the Windows version, the kind of licence and, if you chose libraries and agreed, what pb-diff-ci finds in them; the window shows it all first. It goes to RESTORE's support server; see Getting help and reporting a problem.

The command line and build servers

pb-diff-cli uses the same activation. A build server that needs it activates its service account once, with pb-diff-cli license activate, on a named subscription seat. The command line cannot ask for the licence terms: on a computer where they have not been approved it refuses, and the key is activated from this window instead - once, for that Windows user. A CI job does not need a licence at all: pb-diff-ci.exe, included in the subscription, runs on any build machine without one; see Run pb-diff in CI.

A licence file given in the environment variables PBDIFF_LICENSE or PBDIFF_LICENSE_FILE is for the command line only: the desktop application does not use one, and the Licence window says so when one is set. See the Command-Line Tool Reference.

Trademarks

PowerBuilder, PowerScript and DataWindow are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All other product and company names mentioned may be trademarks of their respective owners. pb-diff is an independent product of RESTORE S.R.L. It is not affiliated with, endorsed or sponsored by SAP, Appeon or any other company named.