Commit d8c949c5 authored by Uwe Kleine-König's avatar Uwe Kleine-König Committed by Jonathan Corbet
Browse files

docs/licensing: Clarify wording about "GPL" and "Proprietary" 



There are currently some doubts about out-of-tree kernel modules licensed
under GPLv3 and if they are supposed to be able to use symbols exported
using EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL.

Clarify that "Proprietary" means anything non-GPL2 even though the
license might be an open source license. Also disambiguate "GPL
compatible" to "GPLv2 compatible".

Signed-off-by: default avatarUwe Kleine-König <ukleinek@kernel.org>
Signed-off-by: default avatarJonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20241115103842.585207-2-ukleinek@kernel.org
parent 21e50013

Documentation/kernel-hacking/hacking.rst

+1 −1
Original line number Diff line number Diff line
@@ -587,7 +587,7 @@ Defined in ``include/linux/export.h`` 


Similar to :c:func:`EXPORT_SYMBOL()` except that the symbols

exported by :c:func:`EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL()` can only be seen by

modules with a :c:func:`MODULE_LICENSE()` that specifies a GPL

modules with a :c:func:`MODULE_LICENSE()` that specifies a GPLv2

compatible license. It implies that the function is considered an

internal implementation issue, and not really an interface. Some

maintainers and developers may however require EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL()

Documentation/process/license-rules.rst

+10 −8
Original line number Diff line number Diff line
@@ -471,14 +471,16 @@ _`MODULE_LICENSE` 
				  source files.



    "Proprietary"		  The module is under a proprietary license.

				  This string is solely for proprietary third

				  party modules and cannot be used for modules

				  which have their source code in the kernel

				  tree. Modules tagged that way are tainting

				  the kernel with the 'P' flag when loaded and

				  the kernel module loader refuses to link such

				  modules against symbols which are exported

				  with EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL().

				  "Proprietary" is to be understood only as

				  "The license is not compatible to GPLv2".

                                  This string is solely for non-GPL2 compatible

                                  third party modules and cannot be used for

                                  modules which have their source code in the

                                  kernel tree. Modules tagged that way are

                                  tainting the kernel with the 'P' flag when

                                  loaded and the kernel module loader refuses

                                  to link such modules against symbols which

                                  are exported with EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL().

    ============================= =============================================