Add Kernel Mainline LICENSES to main#1256
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We're using the `main` branch as a landing that has a readme and for other notes documents and workflows. To allow other companies to clone our kernel forked branches then we need to provide a LICENSE file. In this case we're going just copy the LICENSE directory as this is carried in EVERY OTHER Branch in the repo.
PlaidCat
requested review from
bmastbergen,
kerneltoast and
shreeya-patel98
as code owners
May 21, 2026 21:56
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Pull request overview
This PR brings the Linux kernel-style LICENSES/ corpus onto the main branch so the landing branch includes the standard SPDX license/exception texts expected by downstream consumers and tooling.
Changes:
- Added SPDX “preferred” license texts (GPL/LGPL/BSD/MIT).
- Added SPDX exception texts used by kernel headers/tooling (e.g., Linux-syscall-note, GCC exception).
- Added dual and deprecated license texts to mirror the structure used in other branches.
Reviewed changes
Copilot reviewed 23 out of 23 changed files in this pull request and generated 3 comments.
Show a summary per file
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| LICENSES/preferred/MIT | Adds MIT license text with SPDX metadata. |
| LICENSES/preferred/LGPL-2.1 | Adds LGPL-2.1 license text with SPDX metadata. |
| LICENSES/preferred/LGPL-2.0 | Adds LGPL-2.0 license text with SPDX metadata. |
| LICENSES/preferred/GPL-2.0 | Adds GPL-2.0 license text with SPDX metadata. |
| LICENSES/preferred/BSD-3-Clause-Clear | Adds BSD-3-Clause-Clear license text with SPDX metadata. |
| LICENSES/preferred/BSD-3-Clause | Adds BSD-3-Clause license text with SPDX metadata. |
| LICENSES/preferred/BSD-2-Clause | Adds BSD-2-Clause license text with SPDX metadata. |
| LICENSES/exceptions/Linux-syscall-note | Adds Linux syscall exception text with SPDX metadata. |
| LICENSES/exceptions/GCC-exception-2.0 | Adds GCC exception text with SPDX metadata. |
| LICENSES/dual/MPL-1.1 | Adds MPL-1.1 text (for dual-licensing cases) with SPDX metadata. |
| LICENSES/dual/copyleft-next-0.3.1 | Adds copyleft-next 0.3.1 text (dual-license option) with SPDX metadata. |
| LICENSES/dual/CDDL-1.0 | Adds CDDL-1.0 text (dual-licensing cases) with SPDX metadata. |
| LICENSES/dual/CC-BY-4.0 | Adds CC-BY-4.0 text (documentation/artwork) with SPDX metadata. |
| LICENSES/dual/Apache-2.0 | Adds Apache-2.0 text (dual-licensing cases) with SPDX metadata. |
| LICENSES/deprecated/Zlib | Adds Zlib license text (deprecated category) with SPDX metadata. |
| LICENSES/deprecated/X11 | Adds X11 license text (deprecated category) with SPDX metadata. |
| LICENSES/deprecated/Linux-OpenIB | Adds Linux-OpenIB license text (deprecated category) with SPDX metadata. |
| LICENSES/deprecated/ISC | Adds ISC license text (deprecated category) with SPDX metadata. |
| LICENSES/deprecated/GPL-1.0 | Adds GPL-1.0+ text (deprecated category) with SPDX metadata. |
| LICENSES/deprecated/GFDL-1.2 | Adds GFDL-1.2 (no invariants) text (deprecated category) with SPDX metadata. |
| LICENSES/deprecated/GFDL-1.1 | Adds GFDL-1.1 (no invariants) text (deprecated category) with SPDX metadata. |
| LICENSES/deprecated/CC0-1.0 | Adds CC0-1.0 text (deprecated category) with SPDX metadata. |
| LICENSES/deprecated/0BSD | Adds 0BSD license text (deprecated category) with SPDX metadata. |
💡 Add Copilot custom instructions for smarter, more guided reviews. Learn how to get started.
| To use the copyleft-next-0.3.1 license put the following SPDX tag/value | ||
| pair into a comment according to the placement guidelines in the | ||
| licensing rules documentation: | ||
| SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0-only OR copyleft-next 0.3.1 |
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| SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0 OR GFDL-1.2-no-invariants-or-later | ||
| or | ||
| SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0 OR GFDL-1.1-no-invariants-only | ||
| or | ||
| SPDX-License-Identifier: GFDL-1.2-no-invariants-or-later | ||
| or | ||
| SPDX-License-Identifier: GFDL-1.2-no-invariants-only |
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| Valid-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0 | ||
| Valid-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0-only | ||
| Valid-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0+ | ||
| Valid-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0-or-later | ||
| SPDX-URL: https://spdx.org/licenses/GPL-2.0.html | ||
| Usage-Guide: |
josephtate
approved these changes
May 21, 2026
roxanan1996
approved these changes
May 22, 2026
shreeya-patel98
approved these changes
May 22, 2026
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We're using the
mainbranch as a landing that has a readme and for other notes documents and workflows.To allow other companies to clone our kernel forked branches then we need to provide a LICENSE file. In this case we're going just copy the LICENSE directory as this is carried in EVERY OTHER Branch in the repo.