Message-Id: <20260210205424.11195-2-luis.augenstein@tngtech.com>
Date: Tue, 10 Feb 2026 21:54:10 +0100
From: Luis Augenstein <luis.augenstein@...tech.com>
To: nathan@...nel.org,
	nsc@...nel.org
Cc: linux-kbuild@...r.kernel.org,
	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
	akpm@...ux-foundation.org,
	gregkh@...uxfoundation.org,
	kstewart@...uxfoundation.org,
	maximilian.huber@...tech.com,
	Luis Augenstein <luis.augenstein@...tech.com>
Subject: [PATCH 01/15] scripts/sbom: add documentation

Assisted-by: Claude Sonnet 4.5
Assisted-by: GLM-4.7
Co-developed-by: Maximilian Huber <maximilian.huber@...tech.com>
Signed-off-by: Maximilian Huber <maximilian.huber@...tech.com>
Signed-off-by: Luis Augenstein <luis.augenstein@...tech.com>
---
 Documentation/tools/index.rst     |   1 +
 Documentation/tools/sbom/sbom.rst | 206 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 207 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 Documentation/tools/sbom/sbom.rst

diff --git a/Documentation/tools/index.rst b/Documentation/tools/index.rst
index 80488e290e10..6b0319b2d334 100644
--- a/Documentation/tools/index.rst
+++ b/Documentation/tools/index.rst
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ more additions are needed here:
 
    rtla/index
    rv/index
+   sbom/sbom
 
 .. only::  subproject and html
 
diff --git a/Documentation/tools/sbom/sbom.rst b/Documentation/tools/sbom/sbom.rst
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..029b08b6ad87
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/tools/sbom/sbom.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,206 @@
+.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0-only OR MIT
+.. Copyright (C) 2025 TNG Technology Consulting GmbH
+
+KernelSbom
+==========
+
+Introduction
+------------
+
+KernelSbom is a Python script ``scripts/sbom/sbom.py`` that can be
+executed after a successful kernel build. When invoked, KernelSbom
+analyzes all files involved in the build and generates Software Bill of
+Materials (SBOM) documents in SPDX 3.0.1 format.
+The generated SBOM documents capture:
+
+* **Final output artifacts**, typically the kernel image and modules
+* **All source files** that contributed to the build with metadata
+  and licensing information
+* **Details of the build process**, including intermediate artifacts
+  and the build commands linking source files to the final output
+  artifacts
+
+KernelSbom is originally developed in the
+`KernelSbom repository <https://github.com/TNG/KernelSbom>`_.
+
+Requirements
+------------
+
+Python 3.10 or later. No libraries or other dependencies are required.
+
+Basic Usage
+-----------
+
+Run the ``make sbom`` target.
+For example::
+
+    $ make defconfig O=kernel_build
+    $ make sbom O=kernel_build -j$(nproc)
+
+This will trigger a kernel build. After all build outputs have been
+generated, KernelSbom produces three SPDX documents in the root
+directory of the object tree:
+
+* ``sbom-source.spdx.json``
+  Describes all source files involved in the build and
+  associates each file with its corresponding license expression.
+
+* ``sbom-output.spdx.json``
+  Captures all final build outputs (kernel image and ``.ko`` module files)
+  and includes build metadata such as environment variables and
+  a hash of the ``.config`` file used for the build.
+
+* ``sbom-build.spdx.json``
+  Imports files from the source and output documents and describes every
+  intermediate build artifact. For each artifact, it records the exact
+  build command used and establishes the relationship between
+  input files and generated outputs.
+
+When invoking the sbom target, it is recommended to perform
+out-of-tree builds using ``O=<objtree>``. KernelSbom classifies files as
+source files when they are located in the source tree and not in the
+object tree. For in-tree builds, where the source and object trees are
+the same directory, this distinction can no longer be made reliably.
+In that case, KernelSbom does not generate a dedicated source SBOM.
+Instead, source files are included in the build SBOM.
+
+Standalone Usage
+----------------
+
+KernelSbom can also be used as a standalone script to generate
+SPDX documents for specific build outputs. For example, after a
+successful x86 kernel build, KernelSbom can generate SPDX documents
+for the ``bzImage`` kernel image::
+
+    $ SRCARCH=x86 python3 scripts/sbom/sbom.py \
+        --src-tree . \
+        --obj-tree ./kernel_build \
+        --roots arch/x86/boot/bzImage \
+        --generate-spdx \
+        --generate-used-files \
+        --prettify-json \
+        --debug
+
+Note that when KernelSbom is invoked outside of the ``make`` process,
+the environment variables used during compilation are not available and
+therefore cannot be included in the generated SPDX documents. It is
+recommended to set at least the ``SRCARCH`` environment variable to the
+architecture for which the build was performed.
+
+For a full list of command-line options, run::
+
+    $ python3 scripts/sbom/sbom.py --help
+
+Output Format
+-------------
+
+KernelSbom generates documents conforming to the
+`SPDX 3.0.1 specification <https://spdx.github.io/spdx-spec/v3.0.1/>`_
+serialized as JSON-LD.
+
+To reduce file size, the output documents use the JSON-LD ``@...text``
+to define custom prefixes for ``spdxId`` values. While this is compliant
+with the SPDX specification, only a limited number of tools in the
+current SPDX ecosystem support custom JSON-LD contexts. To use such
+tools with the generated documents, the custom JSON-LD context must
+be expanded before providing the documents.
+See https://lists.spdx.org/g/Spdx-tech/message/6064 for more information.
+
+How it Works
+------------
+
+KernelSbom operates in two major phases:
+
+1. **Generate the cmd graph**, an acyclic directed dependency graph.
+2. **Generate SPDX documents** based on the cmd graph.
+
+KernelSbom begins from the root artifacts specified by the user, e.g.,
+``arch/x86/boot/bzImage``. For each root artifact, it collects all
+dependencies required to build that artifact. The dependencies come
+from multiple sources:
+
+* **.cmd files**: The primary source is the ``.cmd`` file of the
+  generated artifact, e.g., ``arch/x86/boot/.bzImage.cmd``. These files
+  contain the exact command used to build the artifact and often include
+  an explicit list of input dependencies. By parsing the ``.cmd``
+  file, the full list of dependencies can be obtained.
+
+* **.incbin statements**: The second source are include binary
+  ``.incbin`` statements in ``.S`` assembly files.
+
+* **Hardcoded dependencies**: Unfortunately, not all build dependencies
+  can be found via ``.cmd`` files and ``.incbin`` statements. Some build
+  dependencies are directly defined in Makefiles or Kbuild files.
+  Parsing these files is considered too complex for the scope of this
+  project. Instead, the remaining gaps of the graph are filled using a
+  list of manually defined dependencies, see
+  ``scripts/sbom/sbom/cmd_graph/hardcoded_dependencies.py``. This list is
+  known to be incomplete. However, analysis of the cmd graph indicates a
+  ~99% completeness. For more information about the completeness analysis,
+  see `KernelSbom #95 <https://github.com/TNG/KernelSbom/issues/95>`_.
+
+Given the list of dependency files, KernelSbom recursively processes
+each file, expanding the dependency chain all the way to the version
+controlled source files. The result is a complete dependency graph
+where nodes represent files, and edges represent "file A was used to
+build file B" relationships.
+
+Using the cmd graph, KernelSbom produces three SPDX documents.
+For every file in the graph, KernelSbom:
+
+* Parses ``SPDX-License-Identifier`` headers,
+* Computes file hashes,
+* Estimates the file type based on extension and path,
+* Records build relationships between files.
+
+Each root output file is additionally associated with an SPDX Package
+element that captures version information, license data, and copyright.
+
+Advanced Usage
+--------------
+
+Including Kernel Modules
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+The list of all ``.ko`` kernel modules produced during a build can be
+extracted from the ``modules.order`` file within the object tree.
+For example::
+
+    $ echo "arch/x86/boot/bzImage" > sbom-roots.txt
+    $ sed 's/\.o$/.ko/' ./kernel_build/modules.order >> sbom-roots.txt
+
+Then use the generated roots file::
+
+    $ SRCARCH=x86 python3 scripts/sbom/sbom.py \
+        --src-tree . \
+        --obj-tree ./kernel_build \
+        --roots-file sbom-roots.txt \
+        --generate-spdx
+
+Equal Source and Object Trees
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+When the source tree and object tree are identical (for example, when
+building in-tree), source files can no longer be reliably distinguished
+from generated files.
+In this scenario, KernelSbom does not produce a dedicated
+``sbom-source.spdx.json`` document. Instead, both source files and build
+artifacts are included together in ``sbom-build.spdx.json``, and
+``sbom.used-files.txt`` lists all files referenced in the build document.
+
+Unknown Build Commands
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+Because the kernel supports a wide range of configurations and versions,
+KernelSbom may encounter build commands in ``.cmd`` files that it does
+not yet support. By default, KernelSbom will fail if an unknown build
+command is encountered.
+
+If you still wish to generate SPDX documents despite unsupported
+commands, you can use the ``--do-not-fail-on-unknown-build-command``
+option. KernelSbom will continue and produce the documents, although
+the resulting SBOM will be incomplete.
+
+This option should only be used when the missing portion of the
+dependency graph is small and an incomplete SBOM is acceptable for
+your use case.
-- 
2.34.1

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