linux-kernel - [PATCH] checkpatch: add check for missing */ in spdx line

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Message-ID: <20260204213823.1754560-1-tim.bird@sony.com>
Date: Wed,  4 Feb 2026 14:38:23 -0700
From: Tim Bird <tim.bird@...y.com>
To: apw@...onical.com,
	joe@...ches.com,
	dwaipayanray1@...il.com,
	lukas.bulwahn@...il.com
Cc: linux-spdx@...r.kernel.org,
	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
	Tim Bird <tim.bird@...y.com>
Subject: [PATCH] checkpatch: add check for missing */ in spdx line

Add an explicit check for leading /* but missing */
to avoid a malformed SPDX line.

In many cases an SPDX-License-Identifier line immediately
precedes another C-style comment.  In that case, if
the SPDX line starts with '/*' but is missing the closing '*/',
the compiler may not catch it (the leading '/*' on
the next line and the rest of the header comment is just
treated as part of the SPDX comment).

Signed-off-by: Tim Bird <tim.bird@...y.com>
---
 scripts/checkpatch.pl | 5 +++++
 1 file changed, 5 insertions(+)

diff --git a/scripts/checkpatch.pl b/scripts/checkpatch.pl
index c0250244cf7a..1cc3fd5e72af 100755
--- a/scripts/checkpatch.pl
+++ b/scripts/checkpatch.pl
@@ -3794,6 +3794,11 @@ sub process {
 					WARN("SPDX_LICENSE_TAG",
 					     "Improper SPDX comment style for '$realfile', please use '$comment' instead\n" . $herecurr);
 				}
+				if ($comment eq '/*' &&
+				    $rawline !~ m@\*/@) {
+					WARN("SPDX_LICENSE_TAG",
+					     "Improper SPDX comment style for '$realfile', missing closing '*/'\n" . $herecurr);
+				}
 
 				if ($comment !~ /^$/ &&
 				    $rawline !~ m@^\+\Q$comment\E SPDX-License-Identifier: @) {
-- 
2.43.0