[PATCH] arch/x86/kvm/ioapic: Remove license boilerplate with bad FSF address

[PATCH] arch/x86/kvm/ioapic: Remove license boilerplate with bad FSF address

[Thomas Huth]

From: Thomas Huth <thuth@redhat.com>

The Free Software Foundation does not reside in "59 Temple Place"
anymore, so we should not mention that address in the source code here.
But instead of updating the address to their current location, let's
rather drop the license boilerplate text here and use a proper SPDX
license identifier instead. The text talks about the "GNU *Lesser*
General Public License" and "any later version", so LGPL-2.1+ is the
right choice here.

Signed-off-by: Thomas Huth <thuth@redhat.com>
---
 arch/x86/kvm/ioapic.c | 15 +--------------
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 14 deletions(-)

diff --git a/arch/x86/kvm/ioapic.c b/arch/x86/kvm/ioapic.c
index 45dae2d5d2f1f..e81f08c98e2f9 100644
--- a/arch/x86/kvm/ioapic.c
+++ b/arch/x86/kvm/ioapic.c
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+// SPDX-License-Identifier: LGPL-2.1+
 /*
  *  Copyright (C) 2001  MandrakeSoft S.A.
  *  Copyright 2010 Red Hat, Inc. and/or its affiliates.
@@ -8,20 +9,6 @@
  *    http://www.linux-mandrake.com/
  *    http://www.mandrakesoft.com/
  *
- *  This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
- *  modify it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public
- *  License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either
- *  version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
- *
- *  This library is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
- *  but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
- *  MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
- *  Lesser General Public License for more details.
- *
- *  You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public
- *  License along with this library; if not, write to the Free Software
- *  Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307 USA
- *
  *  Yunhong Jiang <yunhong.jiang@intel.com>
  *  Yaozu (Eddie) Dong <eddie.dong@intel.com>
  *  Based on Xen 3.1 code.
-- 
2.50.1

Re: [PATCH] arch/x86/kvm/ioapic: Remove license boilerplate with bad FSF address

[Thomas Huth]

On 28/07/2025 16.59, Marc-Etienne Vargenau (Nokia) wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> That should be:
> 
> // SPDX-License-Identifier: LGPL-2.1-or-later
> 
> not
> 
> // SPDX-License-Identifier: LGPL-2.1+
> 
> « LGPL-2.1+ » is deprecated

Ah, stupid me, I copied it from the wrong file! Thanks for the hint, I'll 
send a v2!

  Thomas

Re: [PATCH] arch/x86/kvm/ioapic: Remove license boilerplate with bad FSF address

[Greg Kroah-Hartman]

On Mon, Jul 28, 2025 at 02:59:26PM +0000, Marc-Etienne Vargenau (Nokia) wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> That should be:
> // SPDX-License-Identifier: LGPL-2.1-or-later
> not
> // SPDX-License-Identifier: LGPL-2.1+
> 
> « LGPL-2.1+ » is deprecated
> https://spdx.org/licenses/LGPL-2.1+.html

The kernel does not differenciate between the two at this point in time,
sorry.  Either is fine for now.

Only AFTER we actually tag all files in the tree will we worry about
silly things like this.

thanks,

greg k-h

Re: [PATCH] arch/x86/kvm/ioapic: Remove license boilerplate with bad FSF address

[Greg Kroah-Hartman]

Please don't top-post on kernel mailing lists.

On Mon, Jul 28, 2025 at 03:19:51PM +0000, Marc-Etienne Vargenau (Nokia) wrote:
> Hi Greg,
> 
> I agree this is not major, but it means that for example Yocto creates invalid SPDX SBOMs that must be fixed before it can be used.

Then Yocto already has that regex setup as the kernel has many such
instances of this.

> It’s better to use the correct syntax in the kernel.

Again, either is fine for now, as per our documentation, don't add
additional requirements for contributors that are not there at all.

thanks,

greg k-h