On Tue, Apr 23, 2019 at 11:21:31AM -0400, Paul Gortmaker wrote:
> [Re: [PATCH] serial: rda-uart: make it explicitly non-modular] On 23/04/2019 (Tue 19:04) Manivannan Sadhasivam wrote:
>
> [...]
>
> > > > > --- a/drivers/tty/serial/rda-uart.c
> > > > > +++ b/drivers/tty/serial/rda-uart.c
> > > > > @@ -4,14 +4,15 @@
> > > > > *
> > > > > * Copyright RDA Microelectronics Company Limited
> > > > > * Copyright (c) 2017 Andreas Färber
> > > > > - * Copyright (c) 2018 Manivannan Sadhasivam
> > > > > + * Copyright (c) 2018 Manivannan Sadhasivam <manivannan.sadhasivam@xxxxxxxxxx>
> > > > > + * License: GPL
> > > >
> > > > That "License" line means nothing. Please stick to a proper SPDX
> > > > license tag, don't make things confusing (hint, what you wrote here
> > > > could imply GPLv1, and I don't think you meant that...")
> > >
> > > Actually, no. I did mean that, as it was a 1:1 direct transformation of
> > > what the author had put in for MODULE_LICENSE -- as you can see in the
> > > part of the patch that you trimmed from the reply:
> > >
> > > -MODULE_AUTHOR("Manivannan Sadhasivam <manivannan.sadhasivam@xxxxxxxxxx>");
> > > -MODULE_DESCRIPTION("RDA8810PL serial device driver");
> > > -MODULE_LICENSE("GPL");
> > >
> > > ...and I felt it wasn't my place to silently "upgrade" the license that
> > > the original author chose, as I don't want to get into license debates.
> > >
> > > It doesn't matter in this case, since the author wants to convert it to
> > > tristate. But for future reference, if I see MODULE_LICENSE("GPL") and
> > > that differs from the robot inserted SPDX line which perhaps says GPLv2,
> > > what is the right course of action? Ignore the MODULE_LICENSE content
> > > as long as there is an SPDX line, regardless of what it says?
> > >
> >
> > MODULE_LICENSE("GPL") corresponds to [GNU Public License v2 or later] and
> > that's what implied by the existing SPDX identifier:
> > // SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0+
> >
> > I don't see an issue with that.
>
> We do have a considerable mix of both, as you can see:
>
> $ git grep 'MODULE_LICENSE("GPL v2")' | wc -l
> 2625
> $ git grep 'MODULE_LICENSE("GPL")' | wc -l
> 6291
>
> ...hence why I was/am reluctant in just assuming GPL meant GPL v2.
The text in MODULE_LICENSE() is defined in module.h for what they mean.
Please read that if you have any questions about exactly what license it
refers to. Outside of that macro, that string might not mean what you
think it means :)
Be careful with license strings, you can end up getting lawyers upset if
you get them wrong...
thanks,
greg k-h
