From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.0 (2014-02-07) on aws-us-west-2-korg-lkml-1.web.codeaurora.org Received: from vger.kernel.org (vger.kernel.org [23.128.96.18]) by smtp.lore.kernel.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 99DEBC54EBD for ; Mon, 9 Jan 2023 00:45:47 +0000 (UTC) Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S230445AbjAIApo (ORCPT ); Sun, 8 Jan 2023 19:45:44 -0500 Received: from lindbergh.monkeyblade.net ([23.128.96.19]:59490 "EHLO lindbergh.monkeyblade.net" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S229693AbjAIApm (ORCPT ); Sun, 8 Jan 2023 19:45:42 -0500 Received: from outgoing.mit.edu (outgoing-auth-1.mit.edu [18.9.28.11]) by lindbergh.monkeyblade.net (Postfix) with ESMTPS id C54C6FD0A for ; Sun, 8 Jan 2023 16:45:40 -0800 (PST) Received: from letrec.thunk.org (host-67-21-23-146.mtnsat.com [67.21.23.146] (may be forged)) (authenticated bits=0) (User authenticated as tytso@ATHENA.MIT.EDU) by outgoing.mit.edu (8.14.7/8.12.4) with ESMTP id 3090jKeE026261 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 bits=256 verify=NOT); Sun, 8 Jan 2023 19:45:28 -0500 DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=mit.edu; s=outgoing; t=1673225131; bh=djY15wrWTJQ6gXpihxNWyBLFqVvyEdWiOV7Dm63sgDU=; h=Date:From:To:Cc:Subject:References:In-Reply-To; b=nW5A9E1919cZ6odRyyyjraInl8Xfb+t9OuEcw3T+z8rS1Aro00IKdMwTroqMtLxlW qD6h6w/vtch4GOSVcsCwoxCHaoCybSFpBeBq/DvjVRtvGIyNDPAe15agBnHvWZE2Ht lRYKBcWcEMTiuQzb94NlFRDxgeuU20eo34STS5t5FLKA/pUoBwf0TJUzBiU/OAiilL hn0eAjRUrCYFuvABS4TO2oY5bWZPD4uQ4N2YiSQBX/WwWYA6wG4BY1Axh0ZJmpc4mM EPeyrcCoNSHwy/mH0/ZU2z/vxx6j0l6Jvsa0ts8zbyWjAkFPLo23/Zvy0u80Ry3U37 Wu2hBzPKb0vwA== Received: by letrec.thunk.org (Postfix, from userid 15806) id 866F38C084A; Sun, 8 Jan 2023 19:45:18 -0500 (EST) Date: Sun, 8 Jan 2023 19:45:18 -0500 From: "Theodore Ts'o" To: Pavel Machek Cc: Geert Uytterhoeven , kernel list , Andrew Morton Subject: Re: Dhrystone -- userland version Message-ID: References: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: Precedence: bulk List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Sun, Jan 08, 2023 at 07:47:07PM +0100, Pavel Machek wrote: > > However, as this is not Linux-specific, how hard can it be to convince > > your distro to include https://github.com/qris/dhrystone-deb.git? > > Usually, when I have a full userspace available, I just clone the above, > > and debuild it myself. > > Dunno. I'd not solve it if package was in Debian, but it is not. I would suspect the better long-term solution would be to get the package into Debian, since that will be easier for people to use. I suspect the reason why most distros don't include it is because it really is a **terrible** benchmark for most use cases. (I'm not even convinced that using it to try to auto-tune the schedule by including a random dhrystone number in a device tree is reallty all that useful, but hey, I'm not a scheduler expert.) So I took a quick look at dhrystone-deb.git, as well as the original version of the Dhrystone source code at [1], and I do see huge red flag show-stopper that would prevent it from getting it into Debian. There are no copyright license notices anywhere in the source code, and from what I can tell, it was originally published in ACM's SIGPLAN Notices --- which even today is behind a paywall, so I presume it's under an ACM copyright. Which makes me wonder --- did someone get copyright clearance from ACM and/or the original authors before this was published in a linux git tree? And if not, we should get this clarified before someone sends a pull request to Linus with a potential copyright licensing problem. - Ted [1] https://netlib.org/benchmark/dhry-c P.S. This is problem is not unique to Dhrystone. This is also one of the reasons why xfstests will probably never be packaged in Debian --- one of the file system exerciser code has been contaminated by code copyrighted by Avadis Tevanian while he was at NeXT, which means that the copyright is now with Apple. There is a much older version of fsx.c that is fully in the public domain if I remember correctly from the last time I looked at it. But someone would have to do a clean-room reimplementation of the enhancements made by Avie from the public domain version, and then layer on all of the changes made by SGI, and Linux developers since then. The last time I asked about whether SGI had managed to get copyright clearance for fsx as I recall there was a lot of mumbling and everyone has decided to let sleeping dogs lie. However, there are people who use the Linux kernel who are much touchier about copyright concerns, so if we can't build a Linux kernel without including lib/dhrystone.c, and we don't have copyright permission from ACM, I suspect some corporate lawyers would be.... uneasy.