linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH] kernel: adjust cpu.c SPDX id

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Message-ID: <20260128203923.GX166857@noisy.programming.kicks-ass.net>
Date: Wed, 28 Jan 2026 21:39:23 +0100
From: Peter Zijlstra <peterz@...radead.org>
To: Tim Bird <tim.bird@...y.com>
Cc: rusty@...tcorp.com.au, greg@...ah.com, tglx@...nel.org,
	linux-spdx@...r.kernel.org, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
	Tim Bird <tbird20d@...oo.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH] kernel: adjust cpu.c SPDX id

On Wed, Jan 28, 2026 at 01:04:33PM -0700, Tim Bird wrote:
> From: Tim Bird <tbird20d@...oo.com>
> 
> Rusty Russell's intent was to have his files licensed as
> GPL-2.0-or-later.  Reflect that intent by adjusting the
> SPDX-License-Identifier line for cpu.c
> 
> Signed-off-by: Tim Bird <tbird20d@...oo.com>
> Link: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-spdx/875x8yw4n6.fsf@rustcorp.com.au/
> ---
>  kernel/cpu.c | 2 +-
>  1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)
> 
> diff --git a/kernel/cpu.c b/kernel/cpu.c
> index 5185c0be847a0..a7a1cf8ea8e08 100644
> --- a/kernel/cpu.c
> +++ b/kernel/cpu.c
> @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
> -// SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
> +// SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0-or-later
>  /* CPU control.
>   * (C) 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 Rusty Russell
>   */

While seeing this fly by (and I really don't care too deeply), I did
make me wonder to the purpose and efficacy of the SPDX header itself.

That is; while Rusty prefers GPL2+, not many of the actual lines in that
file are actually still authored by him. What if those authors prefer
something else?

That is, why are we accounting copyright per file, rather than per
author or even commit (git-blame FTW and all).

Most of the current lines (by a fair margin) seem to belong to Thomas,
so lets throw him under the bus and ponder the hypothetical that he very
strongly prefers GPL2 rather than GPL2+, how does the SPDX header make
sense?