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

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Message-ID: <aJKU0ajcG1Xtrqrf@lappy>
Date: Tue, 5 Aug 2025 19:33:37 -0400
From: Sasha Levin <sashal@...nel.org>
To: Laurent Pinchart <laurent.pinchart@...asonboard.com>
Cc: Jeff Johnson <jeff.johnson@....qualcomm.com>, corbet@....net,
	linux-doc@...r.kernel.org, workflows@...r.kernel.org,
	josh@...htriplett.org, kees@...nel.org,
	konstantin@...uxfoundation.org, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
	rostedt@...dmis.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH 4/4] agents: add legal requirements and agent attribution
 guidelines

On Wed, Aug 06, 2025 at 02:11:50AM +0300, Laurent Pinchart wrote:
>On Tue, Aug 05, 2025 at 03:08:45PM -0700, Jeff Johnson wrote:
>> 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@...nel.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...
>
>And the text isn't properly wrapped. Also, compiling the series, I get
>
>----------------------------------------
>Documentation/agents/main.rst:3: WARNING: Title overline too short.
>
>=====================================
>Linux Kernel Development Agent Instructions
>=====================================
>
>[...]
>
>Documentation/agents/index.rst: WARNING: document isn't included in any toctree [toc.not_included]
>----------------------------------------
>
><irony>
>
>Sasha, please make sure you read the kernel documentation before
>submitting patches. We understand there's a learning curve, but we
>expect contributors to perform due diligence to avoid wasting the time
>of reviewers. I would have expected a human developer submitting patches
>generated by LLMs to have proof-read the patches, compiled them, and
>fixed those issues.
>
></irony>

I thought I was being smart doing that so only AI agents would see that
stuff but it wouldn't appear in any human readable documentation.

I haven't realized checkpatch would complain :)

Anyways, I need to resend this with the improvements suggested by Kees
and Greg where we instead improve and expand the README at root. Let me
go clean it up...

-- 
Thanks,
Sasha