Re: [PATCH 1/8] kbuild, PCI: generic,versatile: comment out MODULE_LICENSE in non-modules

From: Bjorn Helgaas <helgaas@kernel.org>
To: Nick Alcock <nick.alcock@oracle.com>
Cc: mcgrof@kernel.org, linux-modules@vger.kernel.org,
	linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, Rob Herring <robh@kernel.org>,
	linux-pci@vger.kernel.org, linux-arm-kernel@lists.infradead.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH 1/8] kbuild, PCI: generic,versatile: comment out MODULE_LICENSE in non-modules
Date: Mon, 13 Feb 2023 16:57:23 -0600	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <20230213225723.GA2941414@bhelgaas> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20230210164749.368998-2-nick.alcock@oracle.com>

On Fri, Feb 10, 2023 at 04:47:42PM +0000, Nick Alcock wrote:
> Since commit 8b41fc4454e ("kbuild: create modules.builtin without
> Makefile.modbuiltin or tristate.conf"), MODULE_LICENSE declarations
> are used to identify modules. As a consequence, uses of the macro
> in non-modules will cause modprobe to misidentify their containing
> object file as a module when it is not (false positives), and modprobe
> might succeed rather than failing with a suitable error message.
> 
> So comment out all uses of MODULE_LICENSE that are not in real modules
> (the license declaration is left in as documentation).

Weird that all the patches are for drivers/pci/, but the cover letter
didn't go to linux-pci@vger.kernel.org.

  - Please drop "kbuild," from the subject; I don't think it's really
    relevant.

  - Please follow the subject line convention for each file.  They're
    mostly there after dropping "kbuild", but do capitalize the
    sentence that follows the prefix.  The prefix should always be
    "PCI/<driver-tag>: "

  - Remove the MODULE_LICENSE instead of commenting it out.

  - I think every file in drivers/pci that needs one already has SPDX.

  - AFAICT, SPDX is the dispositive license and MODULE_LICENSE just
    determines which interfaces are available to the module, so
    dropping MODULE_LICENSE shouldn't be a problem as far as legal
    issues.