Re: [PATCH v4 17/33] media: add SPDX headers on Kconfig and Makefile files

[Laurent Pinchart <laurent.pinchart@ideasonboard.com>]

Hi Greg,

On Tue, Mar 31, 2020 at 02:47:56PM +0200, Greg Kroah-Hartman wrote:
> On Tue, Mar 31, 2020 at 03:39:14PM +0300, Laurent Pinchart wrote:
> > On Tue, Mar 31, 2020 at 02:22:09PM +0200, Greg Kroah-Hartman wrote:
> > > On Tue, Mar 31, 2020 at 03:06:08PM +0300, Laurent Pinchart wrote:
> > > > On Tue, Mar 31, 2020 at 01:11:53PM +0200, Mauro Carvalho Chehab wrote:
> > > > > Most of media Kconfig/Makefile files already has SPDX,
> > > > > but there are a few ones still missing. Add it to them.
> > > > 
> > > > I think it's a good idea to state the license of each source file, the
> > > > patch looks fine to me. I've however been thinking about licenses for
> > > > build system files recently, and I'll hijack this thread a bit to ask a
> > > > question :-)
> > > > 
> > > > For a project like the Linux kernel, and especially for subsystems that
> > > > are covered by a single license, the choice is easy, we can apply the
> > > > same license to the build files. However, for a project that contains
> > > > components covered by different licenses (such as, for instance, an LGPL
> > > > library, a GPL application and a BSD plugin), how should the license
> > > > covering the build system files be selected ? I searched a bit for
> > > > guidance on this topic, and couldn't find much.
> > > 
> > > By "default" if there is no license on a file in the kernel tree, it
> > > falls under the GPLv2 license and we should explicity state it, like
> > > this patch does.
> > > 
> > > So this is fine, but if you want to license the build files some other
> > > way, that's good too, but do so when you add them to the tree, not at
> > > some later time when it could cause confusion :)
> > 
> > Thanks for your answer. I was hijacking the thread a little bit, the
> > question wasn't related to the kernel, but in this case to libcamera.
> > We've been wondering how to pick licenses for build files there, and I
> > thought fellow kernel developers may have valuable input on this topic.
> 
> I would make the files the same license as your project overall is to
> make things simpler for everyone involved :)

I would if the project had a single license, but we have GPL, LGPL and
BSD components :-S

-- 
Regards,

Laurent Pinchart