[dpdk-dev] [PATCH v3 1/4] Introducing SPDX License Identifiers

Wiles, Keith keith.wiles at intel.com
Wed Dec 13 16:38:49 CET 2017



> On Dec 13, 2017, at 5:38 AM, Bruce Richardson <bruce.richardson at intel.com> wrote:
> 
> On Wed, Dec 13, 2017 at 11:46:23AM +0100, Thomas Monjalon wrote:
>> Hi Hemant,
>> 
>> Some comments below
>> 
>> 08/12/2017 08:41, Hemant Agrawal:
>>> --- /dev/null
>>> +++ b/Licenses/Exceptions.txt
>> 
>> Please use lowercase for file and directory.
>> By the way, the text is referring to exceptions.txt.
>> 
>>> @@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
>>> +This file will record any exceptions in DPDK Project with respect to DPDK
>>> +IP License policy as defined in DPDK Charter available at:
>>> +
>>> +http://dpdk.org/about/charter#ip
>> 
>> This link might be indented.
>> 
>> I think we should make clear that
>> 	- BSD-3-Clause
>> 	- GPL-2.0
>> 	- dual BSD-3-Clause/GPL-2.0
>> 	- dual BSD-3-Clause/LGPL-2.1
>> are not exceptions.
>> 
>>> +----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> +License Name                 SPDX Identifier     TB Approval Date  GB Approval Date  File name
>>> +----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> 
>> The table is large, and file names will be long.
>> Can we remove "License Name" as it is redundant with SPDX id?
>> 
>>> --- /dev/null
>>> +++ b/Licenses/README
>> 
>> Good idea to add a README here.
>> 
>>> @@ -0,0 +1,82 @@
>>> +The DPDK uses the Open Source BSD-3-Clause license for the core libraries and
>>> +drivers. The kernel components are naturally GPLv2 licensed.
>> 
>> You should use SPDX GPL-2.0
>> 
>>> +Including big blocks of License headers in all files blows up the
>>> +source code with mostly redundant information.  An additional problem
>>> +is that even the same licenses are referred to by a number of
>>> +slightly varying text blocks (full, abbreviated, different
>>> +indentation, line wrapping and/or white space, with obsolete address
>>> +information, ...) which makes validation and automatic processing a nightmare.
>>> +
>>> +To make this easier, DPDK is adpoting the use of a single line reference to
>> 
>> Please do not use this tense in the README.
>> We could say "DPDK uses" instead of "DPDK is adpoting the use".
>> 
>>> +Unique License Identifiers in source files as defined by the Linux Foundation's
>>> +SPDX project [1].
>> 
>> My preference is to insert URLs inline to make reading flow easier.
>> 
>>> +Adding license information in this fashion, rather than adding full license
>>> +text, can be more efficient for developers; decreases errors; and improves
>>> +automated detection of licenses. The current set of valid, predefined SPDX
>>> +identifiers is set forth on the SPDX License List[2]
>>> +at https://spdx.org/licenses/.
>> 
>> Here you are mixing inline and reference :)
>> 
>>> +For example, to label a file as subject to the BSD-3-Clause license,
>>> +the following text would be used:
>>> +
>>> +Copyright (C) [YEAR] NAME-OF-COPYRIGHT-HOLDER
>> 
>> I think (C) is useless.
> 
> It may be, I can't comment legally, but it is standard practice on all
> the current copyright lines inserted by the various contributing
> companies.

The ‘(C)’ is part of the Copyright and should not be removed.

> 
>> About the YEAR, we should explicit what it is.
>> I think it is only the first year, and we do not need to update
>> the last year of update.
>> We should also explicit why it is there and why it is not required
>> to add more copyrights.
>> The copyright is required to express who is allowed to declare the
>> license of the code.
>> It is a common practice to add a Copyright line when doing a big update.
>> I think it is fair, but for small changes, it is really not required
>> as we implicitly comply with the current copyright holder and license.
>> 
> I'd be wary about starting to specify formats for the copyright lines,
> as such things are often specified in a particular format by those
> outside the actual development team. For now, let's just focus on the
> SPDX tags.

I agree, focus on the SPDX tags only at this point.

> 
> /Bruce

Regards,
Keith



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