SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0 U-Boot is Free Software. It is copyrighted by Wolfgang Denk and many others who contributed code (see the actual source code and the git commit messages for details). You can redistribute U-Boot and/or modify it under the terms of version 2 of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation. Most of it can also be distributed, at your option, under any later version of the GNU General Public License -- see individual files for exceptions. NOTE! This license does *not* cover the so-called "standalone" applications that use U-Boot services by means of the jump table provided by U-Boot exactly for this purpose - this is merely considered normal use of U-Boot, and does *not* fall under the heading of "derived work" -- see file Licenses/Exceptions for details. Also note that the GPL and the other licenses are copyrighted by the Free Software Foundation and other organizations, but the instance of code that they refer to (the U-Boot source code) is copyrighted by me and others who actually wrote it. -- Wolfgang Denk Like many other projects, U-Boot has a tradition of including big blocks of License headers in all files. This not only blows up the source code with mostly redundant information, but also makes it very difficult to generate License Clearing Reports. An additional problem is that even the same licenses are referred to by a number of slightly varying text blocks (full, abbreviated, different indentation, line wrapping and/or white space, with obsolete address information, ...) which makes automatic processing a nightmare. To make this easier, such license headers in the source files will be replaced with a single line reference to Unique License Identifiers as defined by the Linux Foundation's SPDX project [1]. If a "SPDX-License-Identifier:" line references more than one Unique License Identifier, then this means that the respective file can be used under the terms of either of these licenses, i. e. with SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0+ OR BSD-3-Clause you can choose between GPL-2.0+ and BSD-3-Clause licensing. We use the SPDX Unique License Identifiers here; these are available at [2]. License identifier syntax ------------------------- 1. Placement: The SPDX license identifier in U-Boot files shall be added at the first possible line in a file which can contain a comment. For the majority or files this is the first line, except for scripts which require the '#!PATH_TO_INTERPRETER' in the first line. For those scripts the SPDX identifier goes into the second line. | 2. Style: The SPDX license identifier is added in form of a comment. The comment style depends on the file type:: C source: // SPDX-License-Identifier: <SPDX License Expression> C header: /* SPDX-License-Identifier: <SPDX License Expression> */ ASM: /* SPDX-License-Identifier: <SPDX License Expression> */ scripts: # SPDX-License-Identifier: <SPDX License Expression> .rst: .. SPDX-License-Identifier: <SPDX License Expression> .dts{i}: // SPDX-License-Identifier: <SPDX License Expression> If a specific tool cannot handle the standard comment style, then the appropriate comment mechanism which the tool accepts shall be used. This is the reason for having the "/\* \*/" style comment in C header files. There was build breakage observed with generated .lds files where 'ld' failed to parse the C++ comment. This has been fixed by now, but there are still older assembler tools which cannot handle C++ style comments. | 3. Syntax: A <SPDX License Expression> is either an SPDX short form license identifier found on the SPDX License List, or the combination of two SPDX short form license identifiers separated by "WITH" when a license exception applies. When multiple licenses apply, an expression consists of keywords "AND", "OR" separating sub-expressions and surrounded by "(", ")" . License identifiers for licenses like [L]GPL with the 'or later' option are constructed by using a "+" for indicating the 'or later' option.:: // SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0+ // SPDX-License-Identifier: LGPL-2.1+ WITH should be used when there is a modifier to a license needed. For example, the linux kernel UAPI files use the expression:: // SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0 WITH Linux-syscall-note // SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0+ WITH Linux-syscall-note Other examples using WITH exceptions found in the linux kernel are:: // SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0 WITH mif-exception // SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0+ WITH GCC-exception-2.0 Exceptions can only be used with particular License identifiers. The valid License identifiers are listed in the tags of the exception text file. OR should be used if the file is dual licensed and only one license is to be selected. For example, some dtsi files are available under dual licenses:: // SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0 OR BSD-3-Clause Examples from U-Boot for license expressions in dual licensed files:: // SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0 OR MIT // SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0+ OR BSD-3-Clause AND should be used if the file has multiple licenses whose terms all apply to use the file. For example, if code is inherited from another project and permission has been given to put it in U-Boot, but the original license terms need to remain in effect:: // SPDX-License-Identifier: (GPL-2.0 WITH Linux-syscall-note) AND MIT Another other example where both sets of license terms need to be adhered to is:: // SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-1.0+ AND LGPL-2.1+ [1] http://spdx.org/ [2] http://spdx.org/licenses/ Full name SPDX Identifier OSI Approved File name URI ======================================================================================================================================= GNU General Public License v2.0 only GPL-2.0 Y gpl-2.0.txt http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.txt GNU General Public License v2.0 or later GPL-2.0+ Y gpl-2.0.txt http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.txt GNU Library General Public License v2 or later LGPL-2.0+ Y lgpl-2.0.txt http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/lgpl-2.0.txt GNU Lesser General Public License v2.1 or later LGPL-2.1+ Y lgpl-2.1.txt http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/lgpl-2.1.txt eCos license version 2.0 eCos-2.0 eCos-2.0.txt http://www.gnu.org/licenses/ecos-license.html BSD 2-Clause License BSD-2-Clause Y bsd-2-clause.txt http://spdx.org/licenses/BSD-2-Clause BSD 3-clause "New" or "Revised" License BSD-3-Clause Y bsd-3-clause.txt http://spdx.org/licenses/BSD-3-Clause#licenseText IBM PIBS (PowerPC Initialization and IBM-pibs ibm-pibs.txt Boot Software) license ISC License ISC Y isc.txt https://spdx.org/licenses/ISC SIL OPEN FONT LICENSE (OFL-1.1) OFL-1.1 Y OFL.txt https://spdx.org/licenses/OFL-1.1.html X11 License X11 x11.txt https://spdx.org/licenses/X11.html