Re: [dpdk-dev] [PATCH v5 1/4] Introducing SPDX License Identifiers

[Thomas Monjalon <thomas@monjalon.net>]

19/12/2017 11:14, Hemant Agrawal:
> The DPDK uses the Open Source BSD-3-Clause license for the core libraries
> and drivers. The kernel components are naturally GPLv2 licensed.
> 
> Many of the files in the DPDK source code contain the full text of the
> applicable license. For example, most of the BSD-3-Clause files contain a
> full copy of the BSD-3-Clause license text.
> 
> 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 uses of a single line reference to
> Unique License Identifiers in source files as defined by the Linux
> Foundation's SPDX project https://spdk.org.
> 
> 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 at
> https://spdx.org/licenses/.
> 
> For example, to label a file as subject to the BSD-3-Clause license,
> the following text would be used as the top line of the file.
> 
> SPDX-License-Identifier: BSD-3-Clause
> 
> Note: Any new file contributions in DPDK shall adhere to the above scheme.
> It is also recommended to replace or at least amend the existing license
> text in the code with SPDX-License-Identifiers.
> 
> Any exception to DPDK IP policies shall be approved by DPDK tech board and
> DPDK Governing Board. Steps for any exception approval:
> 1. Mention the appropriate license identifier form SPDX. If the license is
>    not listed in SPDX Licenses. It is the submitters responsibiliity to get
>    it first listed.
> 2. Get the required approval from the DPDK Technical Board. Technical board
>    may advise the author to check alternate means first. If no other
>    alternatives are found and the merit of the contributions are important
>    for DPDK's mission, it may decide on such exception with two-thirds vote
>    of the members.
> 3. Technical board then approach Governing board for such limited approval
>    for the given contribution only.
> 
> Any approvals shall be documented in "licenses/exceptions.txt" with record
> dates.
> 
> Note: From the legal point of view, this patch is supposed to be only a
> change to the textual representation of the license information, but in no
> way any change to the actual license terms. With this patch applied, all
> files will still be licensed under the same terms they were before.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Hemant Agrawal <hemant.agrawal@nxp.com>
> Acked-by: Stephen Hemminger <stephen@networkplumber.org>

Acked-by: Thomas Monjalon <thomas@monjalon.net>

Applied, thanks