[PATCH v2] arch/x86/kvm/ioapic: Remove license boilerplate with bad FSF address

[PATCH v2] 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>
---
 v2: Don't use the deprecated LGPL-2.1+ identifier

 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..69b9f8e9dfcda 100644
--- a/arch/x86/kvm/ioapic.c
+++ b/arch/x86/kvm/ioapic.c
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+// SPDX-License-Identifier: LGPL-2.1-or-later
 /*
  *  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 v2] arch/x86/kvm/ioapic: Remove license boilerplate with bad FSF address

[Greg Kroah-Hartman]

On Mon, Jul 28, 2025 at 05:28:43PM +0200, Thomas Huth wrote:
> 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>
> ---
>  v2: Don't use the deprecated LGPL-2.1+ identifier

If you look at the LICENSES/preferred/LGPL-2.1 file, it says to use:
	SPDX-License-Identifier: LGPL-2.1+

as the kernel's SPDX level is older than you might think.

Also, doesn't the scripts/spdxcheck.pl tool object to the "or-later"
when you run it on the tree with this change in it?

thansk,

greg k-h

Re: [PATCH v2] arch/x86/kvm/ioapic: Remove license boilerplate with bad FSF address

[Thomas Huth]

On 28/07/2025 17.36, Greg Kroah-Hartman wrote:
> On Mon, Jul 28, 2025 at 05:28:43PM +0200, Thomas Huth wrote:
>> 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>
>> ---
>>   v2: Don't use the deprecated LGPL-2.1+ identifier
> 
> If you look at the LICENSES/preferred/LGPL-2.1 file, it says to use:
> 	SPDX-License-Identifier: LGPL-2.1+
> 
> as the kernel's SPDX level is older than you might think.

Ok, got it, then please ignore this v2 and use v1 instead.

> Also, doesn't the scripts/spdxcheck.pl tool object to the "or-later"
> when you run it on the tree with this change in it?

I used the scripts/checkpatch.pl which is also supposed to check SPDX tags, 
and it did not complain...

  Thomas

Re: [PATCH v2] arch/x86/kvm/ioapic: Remove license boilerplate with bad FSF address

[Greg Kroah-Hartman]

On Mon, Jul 28, 2025 at 05:36:47PM +0200, Greg Kroah-Hartman wrote:
> On Mon, Jul 28, 2025 at 05:28:43PM +0200, Thomas Huth wrote:
> > 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>
> > ---
> >  v2: Don't use the deprecated LGPL-2.1+ identifier
> 
> If you look at the LICENSES/preferred/LGPL-2.1 file, it says to use:
> 	SPDX-License-Identifier: LGPL-2.1+
> 
> as the kernel's SPDX level is older than you might think.
> 
> Also, doesn't the scripts/spdxcheck.pl tool object to the "or-later"
> when you run it on the tree with this change in it?

Ugh, sorry, no, it lists both, the tool should have been fine.  I was
reading the text of the file, not the headers at the top of it.  My
fault.

Anyway, I'll let this go through the subsystem tree for it, after the
merge window is closed, as that's the best way for it to flow forward.

thanks,

greg k-h

Re: [PATCH v2] arch/x86/kvm/ioapic: Remove license boilerplate with bad FSF address

[Thomas Huth]

On 28/07/2025 17.50, Greg Kroah-Hartman wrote:
> On Mon, Jul 28, 2025 at 05:36:47PM +0200, Greg Kroah-Hartman wrote:
>> On Mon, Jul 28, 2025 at 05:28:43PM +0200, Thomas Huth wrote:
>>> 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>
>>> ---
>>>   v2: Don't use the deprecated LGPL-2.1+ identifier
>>
>> If you look at the LICENSES/preferred/LGPL-2.1 file, it says to use:
>> 	SPDX-License-Identifier: LGPL-2.1+
>>
>> as the kernel's SPDX level is older than you might think.
>>
>> Also, doesn't the scripts/spdxcheck.pl tool object to the "or-later"
>> when you run it on the tree with this change in it?
> 
> Ugh, sorry, no, it lists both, the tool should have been fine.  I was
> reading the text of the file, not the headers at the top of it.  My
> fault.

By the way, is there a reason why LICENSES/preferred/LGPL-2.1 suggests only 
the old variant:

   For 'GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL) version 2.1 or any later
   version' use:
     SPDX-License-Identifier: LGPL-2.1+

... while LICENSES/preferred/GPL-2.0 suggests both:

   For 'GNU General Public License (GPL) version 2 or any later version' use:
     SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0+
   or
     SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0-or-later

That looks somewhat inconsistent to me... Should the LGPL files be updated?

  Thomas

Re: [PATCH v2] arch/x86/kvm/ioapic: Remove license boilerplate with bad FSF address

[Greg Kroah-Hartman]

On Fri, Aug 01, 2025 at 01:26:43PM +0200, Thomas Huth wrote:
> On 28/07/2025 17.50, Greg Kroah-Hartman wrote:
> > On Mon, Jul 28, 2025 at 05:36:47PM +0200, Greg Kroah-Hartman wrote:
> > > On Mon, Jul 28, 2025 at 05:28:43PM +0200, Thomas Huth wrote:
> > > > 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>
> > > > ---
> > > >   v2: Don't use the deprecated LGPL-2.1+ identifier
> > > 
> > > If you look at the LICENSES/preferred/LGPL-2.1 file, it says to use:
> > > 	SPDX-License-Identifier: LGPL-2.1+
> > > 
> > > as the kernel's SPDX level is older than you might think.
> > > 
> > > Also, doesn't the scripts/spdxcheck.pl tool object to the "or-later"
> > > when you run it on the tree with this change in it?
> > 
> > Ugh, sorry, no, it lists both, the tool should have been fine.  I was
> > reading the text of the file, not the headers at the top of it.  My
> > fault.
> 
> By the way, is there a reason why LICENSES/preferred/LGPL-2.1 suggests only
> the old variant:
> 
>   For 'GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL) version 2.1 or any later
>   version' use:
>     SPDX-License-Identifier: LGPL-2.1+
> 
> ... while LICENSES/preferred/GPL-2.0 suggests both:
> 
>   For 'GNU General Public License (GPL) version 2 or any later version' use:
>     SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0+
>   or
>     SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0-or-later
> 
> That looks somewhat inconsistent to me... Should the LGPL files be updated?

If you want to, sure.  Odds are we don't have many LGPL files in the
tree for it to ever be noticed before.

thanks,

greg k-h

Re: [PATCH v2] arch/x86/kvm/ioapic: Remove license boilerplate with bad FSF address

[Sean Christopherson]

On Mon, 28 Jul 2025 17:28:43 +0200, Thomas Huth wrote:
> 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.
> 
> [...]

Applied to kvm-x86 misc.  I followed the conversation as best as I could, holler
if I picked the wrong version in the end.

Thanks!

[1/1] arch/x86/kvm/ioapic: Remove license boilerplate with bad FSF address
      https://github.com/kvm-x86/linux/commit/49be82d4ad2e

--
https://github.com/kvm-x86/linux/tree/next