[PATCH v3] LICENSES: Explicitly allow SPDX-FileCopyrightText

[PATCH v3] LICENSES: Explicitly allow SPDX-FileCopyrightText

[Krzysztof Kozlowski]

Sources already have SPDX-FileCopyrightText (~40 instances) and more
appear on the mailing list, so document that it is allowed.  On the
other hand SPDX defines several other tags like SPDX-FileType, so add
checkpatch rule to narrow desired tags only to two of them - license and
copyright.  That way no new tags would sneak in to the kernel unnoticed.

Cc: Laurent Pinchart <laurent.pinchart@ideasonboard.com>
Cc: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>
Cc: Joe Perches <joe@perches.com>
Signed-off-by: Krzysztof Kozlowski <krzysztof.kozlowski@oss.qualcomm.com>

---

Other way would be to remove SPDX-FileCopyrightText from existing files
and disallow this, but one way or another we should be explicit about
it.  Otherwise people will be sending more of these and each maintainer
would need to make their own call.

Changes in v3:
1. Typo "or multiple"

Changes in v2:
1. Doc adjustments based on feedback from Greg and Laurent.
2. "unused" -> "unsupported"
3. Drop redundant blank line
---
 Documentation/process/license-rules.rst | 7 +++++--
 scripts/checkpatch.pl                   | 8 ++++++++
 2 files changed, 13 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/process/license-rules.rst b/Documentation/process/license-rules.rst
index 59a7832df7d0..b0176bb8a465 100644
--- a/Documentation/process/license-rules.rst
+++ b/Documentation/process/license-rules.rst
@@ -63,8 +63,11 @@ License identifier syntax
    The SPDX license identifier in kernel files shall be added at the first
    possible line in a file which can contain a comment.  For the majority
    of files this is the first line, except for scripts which require the
-   '#!PATH_TO_INTERPRETER' in the first line.  For those scripts the SPDX
-   identifier goes into the second line.
+   '#!PATH_TO_INTERPRETER' in the first line.  For those scripts, the SPDX
+   license identifier goes into the second line.
+
+   The license identifier line can then be followed by one or multiple
+   SPDX-FileCopyrightText lines if desired.
 
 |
 
diff --git a/scripts/checkpatch.pl b/scripts/checkpatch.pl
index bec7930cdd66..e317cf2ffc58 100755
--- a/scripts/checkpatch.pl
+++ b/scripts/checkpatch.pl
@@ -3856,6 +3856,14 @@ sub process {
 			     "Misplaced SPDX-License-Identifier tag - use line $checklicenseline instead\n" . $herecurr);
 		}
 
+# check for unsupported SPDX file tags
+		if ($rawline =~ /\bSPDX-.*:/ &&
+		    $rawline !~ /\bSPDX-License-Identifier:/ &&
+		    $rawline !~ /\bSPDX-FileCopyrightText:/) {
+			WARN("SPDX_LICENSE_TAG",
+			     "Unsupported SPDX tag\n" . $herecurr);
+		}
+
 # line length limit (with some exclusions)
 #
 # There are a few types of lines that may extend beyond $max_line_length:
-- 
2.51.0

Re: [PATCH v3] LICENSES: Explicitly allow SPDX-FileCopyrightText

[Laurent Pinchart]

On Sun, Mar 01, 2026 at 02:40:55PM +0100, Krzysztof Kozlowski wrote:
> Sources already have SPDX-FileCopyrightText (~40 instances) and more
> appear on the mailing list, so document that it is allowed.  On the
> other hand SPDX defines several other tags like SPDX-FileType, so add
> checkpatch rule to narrow desired tags only to two of them - license and
> copyright.  That way no new tags would sneak in to the kernel unnoticed.
> 
> Cc: Laurent Pinchart <laurent.pinchart@ideasonboard.com>
> Cc: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>
> Cc: Joe Perches <joe@perches.com>
> Signed-off-by: Krzysztof Kozlowski <krzysztof.kozlowski@oss.qualcomm.com>
> 
> ---
> 
> Other way would be to remove SPDX-FileCopyrightText from existing files
> and disallow this, but one way or another we should be explicit about
> it.  Otherwise people will be sending more of these and each maintainer
> would need to make their own call.

Ack.

> Changes in v3:
> 1. Typo "or multiple"
> 
> Changes in v2:
> 1. Doc adjustments based on feedback from Greg and Laurent.
> 2. "unused" -> "unsupported"
> 3. Drop redundant blank line
> ---
>  Documentation/process/license-rules.rst | 7 +++++--
>  scripts/checkpatch.pl                   | 8 ++++++++
>  2 files changed, 13 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
> 
> diff --git a/Documentation/process/license-rules.rst b/Documentation/process/license-rules.rst
> index 59a7832df7d0..b0176bb8a465 100644
> --- a/Documentation/process/license-rules.rst
> +++ b/Documentation/process/license-rules.rst
> @@ -63,8 +63,11 @@ License identifier syntax
>     The SPDX license identifier in kernel files shall be added at the first
>     possible line in a file which can contain a comment.  For the majority
>     of files this is the first line, except for scripts which require the
> -   '#!PATH_TO_INTERPRETER' in the first line.  For those scripts the SPDX
> -   identifier goes into the second line.
> +   '#!PATH_TO_INTERPRETER' in the first line.  For those scripts, the SPDX
> +   license identifier goes into the second line.
> +
> +   The license identifier line can then be followed by one or multiple
> +   SPDX-FileCopyrightText lines if desired.
>  
>  |
>  
> diff --git a/scripts/checkpatch.pl b/scripts/checkpatch.pl
> index bec7930cdd66..e317cf2ffc58 100755
> --- a/scripts/checkpatch.pl
> +++ b/scripts/checkpatch.pl
> @@ -3856,6 +3856,14 @@ sub process {
>  			     "Misplaced SPDX-License-Identifier tag - use line $checklicenseline instead\n" . $herecurr);
>  		}
>  
> +# check for unsupported SPDX file tags
> +		if ($rawline =~ /\bSPDX-.*:/ &&
> +		    $rawline !~ /\bSPDX-License-Identifier:/ &&
> +		    $rawline !~ /\bSPDX-FileCopyrightText:/) {
> +			WARN("SPDX_LICENSE_TAG",
> +			     "Unsupported SPDX tag\n" . $herecurr);

I'd write "nonallowed" instead of "unsupported", possibly because I may
not be familiar with the usage of "supported" in this acceptation. With
or without that change,

Acked-by: Laurent Pinchart <laurent.pinchart@ideasonboard.com>

> +		}
> +
>  # line length limit (with some exclusions)
>  #
>  # There are a few types of lines that may extend beyond $max_line_length:

-- 
Regards,

Laurent Pinchart

Re: [PATCH v3] LICENSES: Explicitly allow SPDX-FileCopyrightText

[Krzysztof Kozlowski]

On 01/03/2026 14:49, Laurent Pinchart wrote:
>>  
>> diff --git a/scripts/checkpatch.pl b/scripts/checkpatch.pl
>> index bec7930cdd66..e317cf2ffc58 100755
>> --- a/scripts/checkpatch.pl
>> +++ b/scripts/checkpatch.pl
>> @@ -3856,6 +3856,14 @@ sub process {
>>  			     "Misplaced SPDX-License-Identifier tag - use line $checklicenseline instead\n" . $herecurr);
>>  		}
>>  
>> +# check for unsupported SPDX file tags
>> +		if ($rawline =~ /\bSPDX-.*:/ &&
>> +		    $rawline !~ /\bSPDX-License-Identifier:/ &&
>> +		    $rawline !~ /\bSPDX-FileCopyrightText:/) {
>> +			WARN("SPDX_LICENSE_TAG",
>> +			     "Unsupported SPDX tag\n" . $herecurr);
> 
> I'd write "nonallowed" instead of "unsupported", possibly because I may
> not be familiar with the usage of "supported" in this acceptation. With
> or without that change,

My two dicts flag "nonallowed" as a mistake while disagreeing with
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/nonallowed, thus just in case I will
write "disallowed".

Best regards,
Krzysztof