Re: [PATCH 4/4] agents: add legal requirements and agent attribution guidelines

Jeff Johnson
2025-08-05T22:08:50Z

On 7/27/2025 12:58 PM, Sasha Levin wrote:
> And below is the first test of this scheme:
>
> Co-developed-by: Claude claude-opus-4-20250514
> Signed-off-by: Sasha Levin <sashal@kernel.org>
> ---
> Documentation/agents/index.rst | 3 ++-
> Documentation/agents/legal.rst | 42 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> Documentation/agents/main.rst | 5 ++++
> 3 files changed, 49 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
> create mode 100644 Documentation/agents/legal.rst
>
> diff --git a/Documentation/agents/index.rst b/Documentation/agents/index.rst
> index 354af3f025e5..982602db3349 100644
> --- a/Documentation/agents/index.rst
> +++ b/Documentation/agents/index.rst
> @@ -9,4 +9,5 @@ Agents
>
> main
> core
> - coding-style
> \ No newline at end of file
> + coding-style
> + legal
> \ No newline at end of file
> diff --git a/Documentation/agents/legal.rst b/Documentation/agents/legal.rst
> new file mode 100644
> index 000000000000..67e6b2cdff9d
> --- /dev/null
> +++ b/Documentation/agents/legal.rst
> @@ -0,0 +1,42 @@
> +.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
> +
> +===============================
> +Legal Requirements for Agents
> +===============================
> +
> +This document outlines critical legal requirements that coding agents must follow when working with the Linux kernel codebase.
> +
> +Licensing Requirements
> +----------------------
> +
> +**GPL-2.0 License**
> + The Linux kernel is licensed under GPL-2.0 only with a syscall exception. Coding agents MUST follow this licensing rule with no exceptions. Any code contributed must be compatible with this license.
> +
> +**SPDX License Identifiers**
> + All files must have proper SPDX license identifiers. For most kernel source files, this should be the first line of the file in the appropriate comment format:
> +
> + - For C source/header files: ``// SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0``
> + - For scripts: ``# SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0``
> + - For documentation: ``.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0``

I believe the agent has not processed the following correctly:
https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/process/license-rules.html

1) C header files use /* SPDX-License-Identifier: <expression> */
2) Contributions need not be GPL-2.0, "individual files can be provided under
a dual license, e.g. one of the compatible GPL variants and alternatively
under a permissive license like BSD, MIT etc."

These two issues jumped out at me...

/jeff