[PATCH 1/4] license: add exception for Linux Kernel uAPI headers

[Hemant Agrawal]

On 16-04-2025 18:04, Maxime Coquelin wrote:
> As approved by both Technical and Governing boards, Linux
> Kernel uAPI header files can now be imported into the
> kernel/linux/uapi directory.
>
> This patch also fix the SPDX tags checker script to take
> into account dual-licensed files.
>
> The process to import such headers is documented in
> doc/guides/contributing/linux_uapi.rst
>
> Signed-off-by: Maxime Coquelin <maxime.coquelin at redhat.com>
> ---
>   devtools/check-spdx-tag.sh |  2 +-
>   license/Linux-syscall-note | 25 +++++++++++++++++++++++++
>   license/exceptions.txt     | 17 +++++++++--------
>   3 files changed, 35 insertions(+), 9 deletions(-)
>   create mode 100644 license/Linux-syscall-note
>
> diff --git a/devtools/check-spdx-tag.sh b/devtools/check-spdx-tag.sh
> index 1fd0d579d3..984825026e 100755
> --- a/devtools/check-spdx-tag.sh
> +++ b/devtools/check-spdx-tag.sh
> @@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ check_licenses() {
>       fi
>       exceptions=$(build_exceptions_list)
>       git grep -l SPDX-License-Identifier: -- $no_license_list $exceptions |
> -    xargs grep -L -E 'SPDX-License-Identifier:[[:space:]]*\(?BSD-3-Clause' > $tmpfile
> +    xargs grep -L -E 'SPDX-License-Identifier:[[:space:]]*(\(?|.* OR )BSD-3-Clause' > $tmpfile
>   
>       wrong_license=$(wc -l < $tmpfile)
>       $quiet || cat $tmpfile
> diff --git a/license/Linux-syscall-note b/license/Linux-syscall-note
> new file mode 100644
> index 0000000000..9abdad71fa
> --- /dev/null
> +++ b/license/Linux-syscall-note
> @@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
> +SPDX-Exception-Identifier: Linux-syscall-note
> +SPDX-URL: https://spdx.org/licenses/Linux-syscall-note.html
> +SPDX-Licenses: GPL-2.0, GPL-2.0+, GPL-1.0+, LGPL-2.0, LGPL-2.0+, LGPL-2.1, LGPL-2.1+, GPL-2.0-only, GPL-2.0-or-later
> +Usage-Guide:
> +  This exception is used together with one of the above SPDX-Licenses
> +  to mark user space API (uapi) header files so they can be included
> +  into non GPL compliant user space application code.
> +  To use this exception add it with the keyword WITH to one of the
> +  identifiers in the SPDX-Licenses tag:
> +    SPDX-License-Identifier: <SPDX-License> WITH Linux-syscall-note
> +License-Text:
> +
> +   NOTE! This copyright does *not* cover user programs that use kernel
> + services by normal system calls - this is merely considered normal use
> + of the kernel, and does *not* fall under the heading of "derived work".
> + Also note that the GPL below is copyrighted by the Free Software
> + Foundation, but the instance of code that it refers to (the Linux
> + kernel) is copyrighted by me and others who actually wrote it.
> +
> + Also note that the only valid version of the GPL as far as the kernel
> + is concerned is _this_ particular version of the license (ie v2, not
> + v2.2 or v3.x or whatever), unless explicitly otherwise stated.
> +
> +			Linus Torvalds
> +
> diff --git a/license/exceptions.txt b/license/exceptions.txt
> index d12fac2034..cf2034747d 100644
> --- a/license/exceptions.txt
> +++ b/license/exceptions.txt
> @@ -9,11 +9,12 @@ Note that following licenses are not exceptions:-
>   	- BSD-3-Clause OR LGPL-2.1
>   	- GPL-2.0  (*Only for kernel code*)
>   
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> -SPDX Identifier      | TB Approval Date | GB Approval Date | File name
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> -MIT                  | 10/23/2019       | 02/10/2020       | lib/eal/windows/include/dirent.h
> -BSD-2-Clause         | 10/23/2019       | 12/18/2019       | lib/eal/windows/include/getopt.h
> -ISC AND BSD-2-Clause | 10/23/2019       | 12/18/2019       | lib/eal/windows/getopt.c
> -MIT                  | 10/19/2022       | 10/18/2022       | drivers/net/gve/base/*
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> +---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> +SPDX Identifier                 | TB Approval Date | GB Approval Date | File name
> +---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> +MIT                             | 10/23/2019       | 02/10/2020       | lib/eal/windows/include/dirent.h
> +BSD-2-Clause                    | 10/23/2019       | 12/18/2019       | lib/eal/windows/include/getopt.h
> +ISC AND BSD-2-Clause            | 10/23/2019       | 12/18/2019       | lib/eal/windows/getopt.c
> +MIT                             | 10/19/2022       | 10/18/2022       | drivers/net/gve/base/*
> +GPL-2.0 WITH Linux-syscall-note | 12/11/2024       | 04/14/2025       | kernel/linux/uapi/linux/*
> +---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Acked-by: Hemant Agrawal <hemant.agrawal at nxp.com>