Re: [OE-core] [poky-contrib][RFC PATCH 2/5] package: Remove false positive lic warnings

["Peter Kjellerstedt" <peter.kjellerstedt@axis.com>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: openembedded-core@lists.openembedded.org <openembedded-
> core@lists.openembedded.org> On Behalf Of Richard Purdie
> Sent: den 17 februari 2021 11:40
> To: Meh Mbeh Ida Delphine <idadelm@gmail.com>; openembedded-
> core@lists.openembedded.org
> Subject: Re: [OE-core] [poky-contrib][RFC PATCH 2/5] package: Remove false
> positive lic warnings
> 
> On Wed, 2021-02-17 at 05:00 +0100, Meh Mbeh Ida Delphine wrote:
> > With the IGNOREWITHLINUXSYSCALLNOTE variable set to "1" in local.conf,
> it removes the "WITH Linux syscall note" string attached to the license
> value for sources before comparism.
> > This is to get more recipe LICENSES to match with those of the sources
> and reduce the number of warnings outputed.
> >
> > Signed-off-by: Ida Delphine <idadelm@gmail.com>
> > ---
> >  meta/classes/package.bbclass | 4 ++++
> >  1 file changed, 4 insertions(+)
> >
> > diff --git a/meta/classes/package.bbclass b/meta/classes/package.bbclass
> > index c3259146b6..14c8475cfa 100644
> > --- a/meta/classes/package.bbclass
> > +++ b/meta/classes/package.bbclass
> > @@ -1774,6 +1774,10 @@ fi
> >                      if l.endswith('-or-later'):
> >                          lic_ = l.replace('-or-later', '+')
> >                          computedpkglicsperpkg.add(lic_)
> > +                    elif l.endswith(' WITH Linux-syscall-note'):
> > +                        if d.getVar("IGNOREWITHLINUXSYSCALLNOTE") == "1":
> > +                            lic_ = l.replace(' WITH Linux-syscall-note', '')
> > +                            computedpkglicsperpkg.add(lic_)
> 
> I think this is going to break things and it should be entirely
> removing this license entry.
> 
> Why? Headers under GPLv2 WITH Linux-syscall-note can be used in a non-
> GPLv2 application and that application doesn't then become under GPLv2.
> 
> What we probably want is a "safe" list of licenses which don't have
> implications and entries matching "* WITH Linux-syscall-note" can be
> ignored, as long as they're only in header files. Perhaps we also need
> a check to ensure we only see "* WITH Linux-syscall-note" in header
> files?
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Richard

Isn't the problem here really the multiple (sometimes contradictory) use 
cases for the LICENSE variable. 

1) It is used to document the licenses that cover the code.
2) It is used to determine if the recipe can be built.
3) It is used (together with LIC_FILES_CHKSUM) to populate the licenses that 
   go into, e.g., ${PN}-lic.
4) It is used by archiver.bbclass to determine what code to export.

To comply with 1) and 3), you want to include, e.g., "GPL-3.0 WITH 
Linux-syscall-note", but for 2) and 4), you probably do not want it. 

Related to this is also recipes that have a LICENSE such as "Foo | Bar" 
where there is a choice as to which license we as a publisher of binaries 
choose when distributing the code. Since this choice may vary from 
distributor to distributor it is not as simple as to just list them both.

//Peter