On Thu, 16 Nov 2017, Jonathan Corbet wrote:
> The following is all extreme nits; you can ignore all of it and the file
> will be just fine.
No.
> I assume you're planning to merge this directly with the rest; feel free to
> add my ack if that's worth anything. If you want me to take it, instead,
> just let me know.
Ok.
> On Thu, 16 Nov 2017 19:33:07 +0100
> > +The following describes the license of the Linux kernel source code
> > +(GPLv2), how to properly mark the license of individual files in the source
> > +tree, as well as links to the full license text.
> > +
> > +.. toctree::
> > + :maxdepth: 2
> > +
> > + process/license-rules.rst
> > +
>
> I'll confess that I'm not convinced that information on license identifiers
> is the very first thing readers should encounter when entering the kernel's
> documentation. But I'll not quibble about it for now, we can always move
> it later :)
Any suggestions for a better place?
> > +The license in the COPYING file applies to the kernel source as a whole,
> > +though individual source files can have a different license which is
> > +required to be compatible with the GPL-2.0:
> > +
> > +::
>
> So this sort of construction (line ending with colon followed by a literal
> block) can also be done like this:
>
> required to be compatible with the GPL-2.0::
>
> GPL-1.0+ : GNU General Public License v1.0 or later
> GPL-2.0+ : GNU General Public License v2.0 or later
>
> (i.e. just put the "::" at the end of the text line). The end result is
> the same, but the source document is a bit more compact and less
> alien-looking. If you concur, there's lots of places that could be fixed
> up this way.
Done. Thanks for the free rst training!
> > +Aside from that, individual files can be provided under a dual license,
> > +i.e. one of the compatible GPL variants and alternatively under a
> > +permissive license like BSD, MIT etc.
>
> Wanna see now nitly I can get? "i.e." ("id est") is an identity mapping;
> you want "e.g." here.
Right you are.
> > +
> > +The Userspace API (UAPI) header files, which describe the interface of user
> > +space programs to the kernel are a special case. According to the note
>
> I might suggest being consistent between "userspace" and "user space" (or
> "user-space" as an adjective). I prefer the latter, but that's just me.
Done
> > +in the kernel COPYING file the syscall interface is a clear boundary,
>
> comma after "file"
Correctly placing commatas was never one of my key skills and I fear this
will persist.
> > +which does not extend the GPL requirements to any software which uses
> > +it to communicate with the kernel. Because the UAPI headers must be
> > +includable into any source files which create an executable running on
> > +the Linux kernel, the exception must be documented by a special license
> > +expression.
> > +
> > +The common way of expressing the license of a source file is to add the
> > +matching boiler plate text into the top comment of the file. Due to
> > +formatting, typos etc. these "boiler plates" are hard to validate for
> > +tools which are used in the context of license compliance.
> > +
> > +To avoid license inconsistencies and to help tooling, it is required to add
> > +a Software Package Data Exchange (SPDX) license identifier to each source
> > +file. SPDX license identifiers are machine parsable and precise shorthands
> > +for the license under which the content of the file is contributed. SPDX
> > +license identifiers are managed by the SPDX Workgroup at the Linux
> > +Foundation and have been agreed on by partners throughout the industry,
> > +tool vendors, and legal teams. For further information see
> > +https://spdx.org/
> > +
> > +The Linux kernel requires the precise SPDX identifier in all source files.
>
> This is redundant with the first line of the previous paragraph. I'd fix
> it by keeping the first paragraph true to its topic of introducing SPDX and
> replacing its first line with something like:
>
> An alternative to boilerplate text is the use of Software Package
> Data Exchange (SPDX) license identifiers in each source file.
Indeed.
> > +The valid identifiers used in the kernel are explained in the section
> > +`License identifiers`_ and have been retrieved from the official SPDX
> > +license list at https://spdx.org/licenses/ along with the license texts.
>
> [...]
>
> > +License identifiers
> > +-------------------
> > +
> > +The licenses currently used, as well as the licenses for code added to the
> > +kernel can be broken down into:
>
> comma after "kernel"
>
> [ran out of things to quibble about here]
Phew :)
Thanks for looking at it!
tglx
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