xref: /illumos-gate/usr/src/README.license-files (revision ead1f93ee620d7580f7e53350fe5a884fc4f158a)

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OK, so you've got approval to integrate code, and you want to know how to
properly communicate the license terms.  What do you do next?

0. Determine whether your code should be covered by Sun copyright,
   CDDL, and/or a third party license.  If only Sun copyright and/or
   CDDL, then skip to step 4.

1. Scan the source code and extract all of the third party licenses
   into one or more separate files.

   A. In general, you'll name these files "THIRDPARTYLICENSE," and
      you'll put one in each source directory (i.e. one per library,
      or one per command, or one per kernel module.)

      EXAMPLE: usr/src/uts/common/io/pcan/THIRDPARTYLICENSE

      If this file proves unmanageable, or you're adding licenses
      that really are independent of each other, you may instead
      create multiple "THIRDPARTYLICENSE.foo" files, where "foo"
      obviously corresponds to the license in question.

      EXAMPLE: usr/src/lib/libsmbfs/smb/THIRDPARTYLICENSE.*

   B. If you planned ahead and included graceful delimiters in your
      source code, the THIRDPARTYLICENSE files may actually be build
      targets in your Makefiles.

      EXAMPLE: usr/src/cmd/perl/Makefile

      This approach is usually overkill.  But if the third party license
      will remain unchanged while the corresponding copyright will change
      dates frequently, then this approach can work well, because you won't
      need to update the license files manually.

2. Give each of the license files a corresponding ".descrip" file with
   an extremely terse explanation of the contents.  Something like
   "MJN DRIVER" or "PORTIONS OF ARCANE FUNCTIONALITY" is sufficient.

   EXAMPLE: usr/src/cmd/refer/THIRDPARTYLICENSE.descrip

3. Edit usr/src/tools/opensolaris/license-list and add the full path
   of your new license file(s).

4. Figure out which packages deliver objects that are built using the
   new source, and add license actions to the package manifest(s).

   A. It's extremely rare for a package NOT to include a Sun copyright
      and CDDL.  If your package is one of the 99 percent that should
      have a Sun copyright and CDDL, then your package should have license
      actions like this:

	  license lic_CDDL license=lic_CDDL
	  license cr_Sun license=cr_Sun

   B. If your package delivers ONLY header files, and has multiple different
      copyrights or licenses, you can use

          license license_in_headers license=license_in_headers
	  license path/to/most/common/copyright/file license=path/to/most/common/copyright/file
	  license path/to/most/common/license/file license=path/to/most/common/license/file

   C. For your new license files, the path you use in your license
      actions should be relative to ${SRC}.

   D. Empty packages: if your package delivers nothing (or, more strictly
      speaking, nothing besides directories) you should include the Sun
      copyright but not the CDDL.

   E. As with any other action that is architecture dependent, license
      actions may be preceded by $(blah_ONLY), where "blah" corresponds
      to $(uname -p).