Re: [edk2-devel] License Check - was OvmfPkg: Adding support for bhyve as OvmfPkg/Bhyve

["Leif Lindholm" <leif@nuviainc.com>]

On Fri, Jul 03, 2020 at 01:40:26 +0000, Gao, Liming wrote:
> > >>> *Reads patch*
> > >>> *Figuratively spits coffee all over keyboard*
> > >>>
> > >>> No, this is not OK.
> > >>>
> > >>> We *STILL* have no agreed process for accepting non bsd+patent content
> > >>> since we dropped the contribution agreement. I have tried to raise
> > >>> this issue several times in the past, and there has never been any
> > >>> outcome from resulting discussions.
> > >>>
> > >>> So now I'm going to send out a two-patch set consisting of:
> > >>> - Reverting a4cfb842fca9. (Doing nothing is better than implying that
> > >>>    anything !bsd+patent can currently be added to the tree.)
> > >>> - Deleting the statement in ReadmMe.rst erroneously claiming that the
> > >>>    includion of these other licenses are acceptable until such a point
> > >>>    an active decision has been taken, approved by the community, that
> > >>>    this is permitted.
> > >>>
> > >>
> > >> If only bsd+patent is allowed, the checker can be enhanced to check this license only.
> > >> I don't understand why remove this checker.
> > >
> > > Mainly because that was the easiest thing to do :)
> 
> People may miss it. So, the checker is helpful to detect the issue. 

The feature is useful, but enabling it by default is not the correct
decision for all TianoCore repos, and the situation for non-bsd+patent
contributions is less than ideal.

> > >
> > > But also because:
> > > - The thread that spawned this also raised the problem of
> > >    machine-generated files.
>
> This is a gap. We have no rule for the generated file. 
> 
> > > - I am somewhat unhappy the checker got merged in the first place
> > >    without wider community feedback. BaseTools and its contents are
> > >    used for many repositories (even within TianoCore), and this added
> > >    unconditional check breaks the use for some of those.
> > >
> The patch to add the license checker is reviewed in edk2 mail list
> for several weeks.
> I don't get other comments. Can you give the suggestion on how to
> improve the communication in edk2 community?

I think that for something as fundamental as this, we need to actively
chase feedback. I know that I will never manage to always read all
emails to the lists, so there is always a risk I will miss something
I'm not cc:d on.
For something with as big an impact as a tightening of requirements in
PatchCheck.py, if sufficient feedback (like at least 2-3 maintainers
outside of BaseTools) has not been received, then it would make sense
to ping *all* maintainers, alternatively ping the stewards and ask us
to go gather feedback.

> Besides, there is another new checker of ECC to check coding style
> for each patch. Can you give your comment?
> https://edk2.groups.io/g/devel/message/61966

I have never managed to get ECC running in any of my setups.
Perhaps I should start trying to track down why, or at least raise a
bugzilla for someone else to investigate.

Regards,

Leif

> > I think the fundamental problem is that contributing code under a
> > contribution agreement that includes a patent grant is not the same as
> > contributing it under a patent grant license, given that the latter can
> > only be done by the author of the code, while the former could be done
> > by anyone.
> > 
> > This means our current licensing policy is actually more restrictive
> > that the old one, making it more difficult to incorporate 'second hand'
> > code.
> > 
> > I don't think we can fix this with a patch though :-(
> 
> Yes. This checker is for current allowed license. It doesn't resolve this issue. 
> 
> Thanks
> Liming
> > 
> > 
>