manual: document usage of the legal-info feature
Signed-off-by: Luca Ceresoli <luca@lucaceresoli.net> Signed-off-by: Thomas Petazzoni <thomas.petazzoni@free-electrons.com>
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Luca Ceresoli
Thomas Petazzoni
parent
86f7382a6c
commit
00ba118fca
@ -245,6 +245,27 @@ information is (assuming the package name is +libfoo+) :
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You can find some documentation for this syntax in the xref:makedev-syntax[].
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This variable is optional.
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* +LIBFOO_LICENSE+ defines the license (or licenses) under which the package
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is released.
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This name will appear in the manifest file produced by +make legal-info+.
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If the license is one of those listed in xref:legal-info[],
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use the same string to make the manifest file uniform.
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Otherwise, describe the license in a precise and concise way, avoiding
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ambiguous names such as +BSD+ which actually name a family of licenses.
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If the root filesystem you generate contains non-opensource packages, you
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can define their license as +PROPRIETARY+: Buildroot will not save any
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licensing info or source code for this package.
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This variable is optional. If it is not defined, +unknown+ will appear in
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the +license+ field of the manifest file for this package.
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* +LIBFOO_LICENSE_FILES+ is a space-separated list of files in the package
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tarball that contain the license(s) under which the package is released.
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+make legal-info+ copies all of these files in the +legal-info+ directory.
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See xref:legal-info[] for more information.
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This variable is optional. If it is not defined, a warning will be produced
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to let you know, and +not saved+ will appear in the +license files+ field
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of the manifest file for this package.
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The recommended way to define these variables is to use the following
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syntax:
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@ -181,3 +181,106 @@ or +g+++ for building helper-binaries on your host, then do
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--------------------
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$ make HOSTCXX=g++-4.3-HEAD HOSTCC=gcc-4.3-HEAD
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--------------------
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Complying with opensource licenses
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----------------------------------
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[[legal-info]]
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All of the end products of Buildroot (toolchain, root filesystem, kernel,
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bootloaders) contain opensource software, released under various licenses.
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Using opensource software gives you the freedom to build rich embedded
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systems choosing from a wide range of packages, but also gives some
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obligations that you must know and honour.
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Some licenses require you to publish the license text in the documentation of
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your product. Other require you to redistribute the source code of the
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software to those that receive your product.
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The exact requirements of each license is documented in each package, and it is
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your (or your legal office's) responsibility to comply with these requirements.
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To make this easier for you, Buildroot can collect for you some material you
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will probably need. To produce this material, after you configured Buildroot
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with +make menuconfig+, +make xconfig+ or +make gconfig+, run:
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--------------------
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make legal-info
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--------------------
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Buildroot will collect legally-relevant material in your output directory,
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under the +legal-info/+ subdirectory.
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There you will find:
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* A +README+ file, that summarizes the produced material and contains warnings
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about material that Buildroot could not produce.
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* +buildroot.config+: this is the Buildroot configuration file that is usually
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produced with +make menuconfig+, and which is necessary to reproduce the
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build.
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* The source code for all packages; this is saved in the +sources/+
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subdirectory (except for proprietary packages, whose source code is not
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saved);
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patches applied to some packages by Buildroot are distributed with the
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Buildroot sources and are not duplicated in the +sources/+ subdirectory.
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* A manifest file listing the configured packages, their version, license and
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related information.
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Some of these information might be not defined in Buildroot; in this case
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they are clearly marked as "unknown" or similar.
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* A +licenses/+ subdirectory, which contains the license text of packages.
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If the license file(s) are not defined in Buildroot, the file is not produced
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and a warning in the +README+ indicates this.
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Please note that the aim of the +legal-info+ feature of Buildroot is to
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produce all the material that is somehow relevant for legal compliance with the
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package licenses. Buildroot does not try to produce the exact material that
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you must somehow make public. It does surely produce some more material than is
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needed for a strict legal compliance. For example, it produces the source code
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for packages released under BSD-like licenses, that you might not want to
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redistribute in source form.
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Moreover, due to technical limitations, Buildroot does not produce some
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material that you will or may need, such as the toolchain source code and the
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Buildroot source code itself.
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When you run +make legal-info+, Buildroot produces warnings in the +README+
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file to inform you of relevant material that could not be saved.
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Here is a list of the licenses that are most widely used by packages in
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Buildroot, with the name used in the manifest file:
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* +GPLv2+:
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http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0.html[
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GNU General Public License, version 2];
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* +GPLv2++:
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http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0.html[
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GNU General Public License, version 2]
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or (at your option) any later version;
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* +GPLv3+:
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http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html[
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GNU General Public License, version 3];
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* +GPLv3++:
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http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html[
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GNU General Public License, version 3]
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or (at your option) any later version;
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* +GPL+:
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http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html[
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GNU General Public License] (any version);
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* +LGPLv2.1+:
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http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/lgpl-2.1.html[
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GNU Lesser General Public License, version 2.1];
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* +LGPLv2.1++:
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http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/lgpl-2.1.html[
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GNU Lesser General Public License, version 2.1]
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or (at your option) any later version;
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* +LGPLv3+:
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http://www.gnu.org/licenses/lgpl.html[
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GNU Lesser General Public License, version 3];
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* +LGPLv3++:
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http://www.gnu.org/licenses/lgpl.html[
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GNU Lesser General Public License, version 3]
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or (at your option) any later version;
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* +LGPL+:
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http://www.gnu.org/licenses/lgpl.html[
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GNU Lesser General Public License] (any version);
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* +BSD-4c+: Original BSD 4-clause license;
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* +BSD-3c+: BSD 3-clause license;
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* +BSD-2c+: BSD 2-clause license;
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* +PROPRIETARY+: marks a non-opensource package;
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Buildroot does not save any licensing info or source code for these packages.
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