Hi Jarkko,
On Thu, Sep 6, 2018 at 11:21 AM, Jarkko Sakkinen
<jarkko.sakkinen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> There is another open. If I grep through the kernel tree I see SPDX
> headers that are decorated both with C99- and C89-style comments. I
> guess I ended up using C99-style because when I was instructed to add
> SPDX headers in the first place that was the example I was given. Still
> checkpatch.pl complains about C99-style comments.
>
> Which one is right and why the kernel tree is polluted with C99-headers
> when they do not pass checkpatch.pl? How those commits were ever
> accepted?
See Documentation/process/license-rules.rst. Headers should go with
C-style comments:
The SPDX license identifier is added in form of a comment. The comment
style depends on the file type::
C source: // SPDX-License-Identifier: <SPDX License Expression>
C header: /* SPDX-License-Identifier: <SPDX License Expression> */
And:
If a specific tool cannot handle the standard comment style, then the
appropriate comment mechanism which the tool accepts shall be used. This
is the reason for having the "/\* \*/" style comment in C header
files. There was build breakage observed with generated .lds files where
'ld' failed to parse the C++ comment. This has been fixed by now, but
there are still older assembler tools which cannot handle C++ style
comments.
The ones that got in are probably either old or they slipped through
(and they do not break the build).
Cheers,
Miguel
