[PATCH v3] drm: uapi: Use SPDX in DRM core uAPI headers

[PATCH v3] drm: uapi: Use SPDX in DRM core uAPI headers

[Laurent Pinchart]

The DRM core uAPI headers are licensed under the MIT license, and carry
copies of the license with slight variations. Replace them with SPDX
headers.

Following a discussion with Simona Vetter on this topic, add a
clarification in the drm-uapi.rst file that independent closed-source
userspace implementations of software using the DRM uAPI are accepted,
as allowed by the MIT license.

Signed-off-by: Laurent Pinchart <laurent.pinchart+renesas@ideasonboard.com>
Reviewed-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>
Reviewed-by: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>
Reviewed-by: Simona Vetter <simona.vetter@ffwll.ch>
---
Dave, could I get your ack on this ? Please also let me know if it
should go through drm-misc or if you prefer picking it up.
---
 Documentation/gpu/drm-uapi.rst |  4 ++++
 include/uapi/drm/drm.h         | 20 +-------------------
 include/uapi/drm/drm_fourcc.h  | 20 +-------------------
 include/uapi/drm/drm_mode.h    | 19 +------------------
 include/uapi/drm/drm_sarea.h   | 20 +-------------------
 5 files changed, 8 insertions(+), 75 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/gpu/drm-uapi.rst b/Documentation/gpu/drm-uapi.rst
index 579e87cb9ff7..32206ce62931 100644
--- a/Documentation/gpu/drm-uapi.rst
+++ b/Documentation/gpu/drm-uapi.rst
@@ -118,6 +118,10 @@ is already rather painful for the DRM subsystem, with multiple different uAPIs
 for the same thing co-existing. If we add a few more complete mistakes into the
 mix every year it would be entirely unmanageable.
 
+The DRM subsystem has however no concern with independent closed-source
+userspace implementations. To officialize that position, the DRM uAPI headers
+are covered by the MIT license.
+
 .. _drm_render_node:
 
 Render nodes
diff --git a/include/uapi/drm/drm.h b/include/uapi/drm/drm.h
index 495462e44a17..bc7ef7684099 100644
--- a/include/uapi/drm/drm.h
+++ b/include/uapi/drm/drm.h
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+/* SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT */
 /*
  * Header for the Direct Rendering Manager
  *
@@ -11,25 +12,6 @@
  * Copyright 1999 Precision Insight, Inc., Cedar Park, Texas.
  * Copyright 2000 VA Linux Systems, Inc., Sunnyvale, California.
  * All rights reserved.
- *
- * Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a
- * copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"),
- * to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation
- * the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense,
- * and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the
- * Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
- *
- * The above copyright notice and this permission notice (including the next
- * paragraph) shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the
- * Software.
- *
- * THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
- * IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
- * FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT.  IN NO EVENT SHALL
- * VA LINUX SYSTEMS AND/OR ITS SUPPLIERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR
- * OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE,
- * ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR
- * OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
  */
 
 #ifndef _DRM_H_
diff --git a/include/uapi/drm/drm_fourcc.h b/include/uapi/drm/drm_fourcc.h
index ac66fa93b5a3..2caf8249f892 100644
--- a/include/uapi/drm/drm_fourcc.h
+++ b/include/uapi/drm/drm_fourcc.h
@@ -1,24 +1,6 @@
+/* SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT */
 /*
  * Copyright 2011 Intel Corporation
- *
- * Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a
- * copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"),
- * to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation
- * the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense,
- * and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the
- * Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
- *
- * The above copyright notice and this permission notice (including the next
- * paragraph) shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the
- * Software.
- *
- * THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
- * IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
- * FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT.  IN NO EVENT SHALL
- * VA LINUX SYSTEMS AND/OR ITS SUPPLIERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR
- * OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE,
- * ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR
- * OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
  */
 
 #ifndef DRM_FOURCC_H
diff --git a/include/uapi/drm/drm_mode.h b/include/uapi/drm/drm_mode.h
index a4bdc4bd11bc..381a3e857d4e 100644
--- a/include/uapi/drm/drm_mode.h
+++ b/include/uapi/drm/drm_mode.h
@@ -1,27 +1,10 @@
+/* SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT */
 /*
  * Copyright (c) 2007 Dave Airlie <airlied@linux.ie>
  * Copyright (c) 2007 Jakob Bornecrantz <wallbraker@gmail.com>
  * Copyright (c) 2008 Red Hat Inc.
  * Copyright (c) 2007-2008 Tungsten Graphics, Inc., Cedar Park, TX., USA
  * Copyright (c) 2007-2008 Intel Corporation
- *
- * Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a
- * copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"),
- * to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation
- * the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense,
- * and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the
- * Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
- *
- * The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in
- * all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
- *
- * THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
- * IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
- * FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
- * AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
- * LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING
- * FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS
- * IN THE SOFTWARE.
  */
 
 #ifndef _DRM_MODE_H
diff --git a/include/uapi/drm/drm_sarea.h b/include/uapi/drm/drm_sarea.h
index a951ced60ebe..1e38d028332d 100644
--- a/include/uapi/drm/drm_sarea.h
+++ b/include/uapi/drm/drm_sarea.h
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+/* SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT */
 /**
  * \file drm_sarea.h
  * \brief SAREA definitions
@@ -8,25 +9,6 @@
 /*
  * Copyright 2002 Tungsten Graphics, Inc., Cedar Park, Texas.
  * All Rights Reserved.
- *
- * Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a
- * copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"),
- * to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation
- * the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense,
- * and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the
- * Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
- *
- * The above copyright notice and this permission notice (including the next
- * paragraph) shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the
- * Software.
- *
- * THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
- * IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
- * FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT.  IN NO EVENT SHALL
- * TUNGSTEN GRAPHICS AND/OR ITS SUPPLIERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR
- * OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE,
- * ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR
- * OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
  */
 
 #ifndef _DRM_SAREA_H_

base-commit: dc2d30e7db8321a6696d266838f7af7e9d1c7155
-- 
Regards,

Laurent Pinchart

Claude review: drm: uapi: Use SPDX in DRM core uAPI headers

[Claude Code Review Bot]

Patch Review

**Documentation change (`Documentation/gpu/drm-uapi.rst`):**

The added paragraph is well-placed, directly after the discussion of uAPI review requirements and before the render nodes section:

```
+The DRM subsystem has however no concern with independent closed-source
+userspace implementations. To officialize that position, the DRM uAPI headers
+are covered by the MIT license.
```

Minor nit: "officialize" is not a standard English word — "formalize" would be more conventional. That said, the meaning is perfectly clear, and this has already been reviewed by multiple maintainers including Simona who participated in the original discussion, so this is not worth blocking on.

**Header changes (`drm.h`, `drm_fourcc.h`, `drm_mode.h`, `drm_sarea.h`):**

All four headers follow the same clean pattern:
1. Add `/* SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT */` as the very first line
2. Remove the verbose MIT license text
3. Preserve copyright notices and author attributions

The changes are mechanically correct. The SPDX tag is placed on line 1 as required by kernel convention, copyright lines are retained, and no functional code is touched. The slight variations in the removed license text (e.g., `drm.h` names "VA LINUX SYSTEMS", `drm_sarea.h` names "TUNGSTEN GRAPHICS", `drm_mode.h` uses "AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS") are all correctly identified as MIT license variants and appropriately replaced by the single `MIT` SPDX identifier.

One observation: `drm.h` has a slightly unusual structure after the patch — it ends up with two separate comment blocks (one for the header description/author and one for the copyright notices). This is a pre-existing structure and the patch handles it correctly by inserting the SPDX tag before the first block and removing the license text from the second.

**No concerns.** The patch is clean, well-reviewed, and correct. Recommend merging.

---
Generated by Claude Code Patch Reviewer

Claude review: drm: uapi: Use SPDX in DRM core uAPI headers

[Claude Code Review Bot]

Overall Series Review

Subject: drm: uapi: Use SPDX in DRM core uAPI headers
Author: Laurent Pinchart <laurent.pinchart+renesas@ideasonboard.com>
Patches: 1
Reviewed: 2026-04-12T13:38:53.634312

---

This is a single, straightforward patch that replaces verbose MIT license boilerplate in four DRM core uAPI headers with `SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT` tags, and adds a short documentation paragraph clarifying the DRM subsystem's position on closed-source userspace.

The patch is well-motivated and follows the kernel's established practice of moving to SPDX identifiers (see `Documentation/process/license-rules.rst`). It already carries Reviewed-by tags from Greg Kroah-Hartman, Thomas Gleixner, and Simona Vetter, which is strong endorsement for a licensing/SPDX change.

**Verdict: This patch looks good and is ready to merge.**

---
Generated by Claude Code Patch Reviewer