From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Luca Ceresoli Date: Fri, 09 Mar 2012 17:23:08 +0100 Subject: [Buildroot] [RFC v2 16/31] linux: define license In-Reply-To: <201203072249.40319.yann.morin.1998@free.fr> References: <1331153911-22277-1-git-send-email-luca@lucaceresoli.net> <1331153911-22277-17-git-send-email-luca@lucaceresoli.net> <201203072249.40319.yann.morin.1998@free.fr> Message-ID: <4F5A2E6C.9030202@lucaceresoli.net> List-Id: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit To: buildroot@busybox.net Yann E. MORIN wrote: > Lucas, All, > > On Wednesday 07 March 2012 21:58:16 Luca Ceresoli wrote: >> Signed-off-by: Luca Ceresoli >> --- >> linux/linux.mk | 2 ++ >> 1 files changed, 2 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-) >> >> diff --git a/linux/linux.mk b/linux/linux.mk >> index ae236d4..e6f2388 100644 >> --- a/linux/linux.mk >> +++ b/linux/linux.mk >> @@ -4,6 +4,8 @@ >> # >> ############################################################################### >> LINUX_VERSION=$(call qstrip,$(BR2_LINUX_KERNEL_VERSION)) >> +LINUX_LICENSE = GPLv2-ONLY > What's the point of giving the version 'v2' and stating 'only'? > I would rather see: > values meaning > ------------------------------- > GPLv2 GPLv2 only > GPLv2+ GPLv2 or later > LGPLv2.1 LGPLv2.1 only > LGPLv2.1+ LGPLv2.1 or later > ... ... When a project is GPL-licensed, it usually means it uses "either version X of the License, or (at your option) any later version". There are rare cases (Linux, Busybox, any other?) chose to use a specific version, no later version. So the "default" meaning of "GPLvX" is "GPL version X or later". Those rare cases that allow no upgrade are distinguished by adding "only". This applies for example to: - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_kernel - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Directfb - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lzop I prefer to do the same, and use a concise definition for the most frequent case. Of course this is a personal preference. If we wanted to stay on the extra-safe side, we might use: values meaning ------------------------------- GPLv2-ONLY GPLv2 only GPLv2+ GPLv2 or later LGPLv2.1-ONLY LGPLv2.1 only LGPLv2.1+ LGPLv2.1 or later ... ... so there is no ambiguity whatsoever. Might that "+" sign create doubts in dummies reading it ("Hey, what's GPLv2+? a super-GPLv2?")? Your opinions? Luca