Re: [PATCH 2/5] misc: mlx5ctl: Add mlx5ctl misc driver

[Leon Romanovsky <leonro@nvidia.com>]

On Wed, Oct 18, 2023 at 10:55:35AM +0200, Greg Kroah-Hartman wrote:
> On Wed, Oct 18, 2023 at 11:49:08AM +0300, Leon Romanovsky wrote:
> > On Wed, Oct 18, 2023 at 10:30:00AM +0200, Greg Kroah-Hartman wrote:
> > > On Wed, Oct 18, 2023 at 01:19:38AM -0700, Saeed Mahameed wrote:
> > > > +// SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0 OR Linux-OpenIB
> > > 
> > > For dual-licensed code, I need a LOT of documentation as to why this
> > > must be dual-licensed, AND a signed-off-by from your corporate lawyer
> > > agreeing to it so they convey an understanding of just how complex and
> > > messy this will get over time and what you are agreeing to do here.
> > 
> > This is how we (NBU, Networking Business Unit in Nvidia, former Mellanox)
> > are instructed to submit all our code by default. This license is aligned
> > with our networking, vdpa and RDMA code.
> 
> Please don't do this without a really really good reason.  Especially
> for a "misc" driver that is so linux-dependant here.  

Like I said, it is our default license. Saeed will change this code to be GPL-only.

> The "Linux-OpenIB" license is old, obsolete, and problematic and should not be added to any
> new files in the kernel tree, outside of the island of
> drivers/infiniband/ as you all insist on that crazyness there.
> 
> Heck, it's even documented that you shouldn't be adding that license to
> any new files, why ignore that?

I don't remember being asked about it, not in this patch
https://lore.kernel.org/all/20180425203703.568152337@linutronix.de/
and not in this later patch which changed LICENSES/other/ to be
LICENSES/deprecated/
https://lore.kernel.org/all/20190430105130.24500-4-hch@lst.de/

So it is nice that someone decided to deprecate it without notifying users
about such change. It will be better to put Linux-OpenIB to LICENSES/dual/
folder instead.

Our lawyers are perfectly fine with Linux-OpenIB license.

Thanks

> 
> thanks,
> 
> greg k-h