diff mbox series

contributor-guide/recipe-style-guide.rst: explain difference between layer and recipe license(s)

Message ID 20260106-layer-license-clarification-v1-1-99c69ec1a878@bootlin.com
State New
Headers show
Series contributor-guide/recipe-style-guide.rst: explain difference between layer and recipe license(s) | expand

Commit Message

Antonin Godard Jan. 6, 2026, 3:30 p.m. UTC 
Explain that the LICENSE set in a recipe does not apply to the recipe
file itself, but to the underlying software. The license of the recipe
file is the license provided in the layer itself. Give OpenEmbedded-Core
as an example for this.

Fixes [YOCTO #14410]

Signed-off-by: Antonin Godard <antonin.godard@bootlin.com>
---
 documentation/contributor-guide/recipe-style-guide.rst | 12 ++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 12 insertions(+)


---
base-commit: f9042e1da554017fe46460c1fd2bdf8c74b3fa18
change-id: 20260106-layer-license-clarification-70bd02361f76
diff mbox series

Patch

diff --git a/documentation/contributor-guide/recipe-style-guide.rst b/documentation/contributor-guide/recipe-style-guide.rst
index 806bf2384..6a3e9043c 100644
--- a/documentation/contributor-guide/recipe-style-guide.rst
+++ b/documentation/contributor-guide/recipe-style-guide.rst
@@ -221,6 +221,18 @@  Recipes need to define both the :term:`LICENSE` and
    ``meta/files/common-licenses/`` or the :term:`SPDXLICENSEMAP` flag names
    defined in ``meta/conf/licenses.conf``.
 
+   .. note::
+
+      Setting a :term:`LICENSE` in a recipe does not apply to the recipe file
+      itself. The license of recipes, configuration files or scripts is
+      specified by the license found in the :term:`layer` that holds these
+      files. These license files are usually found at the root of the layer.
+      Exceptions should be clearly stated in the layer README of LICENSE file.
+
+      For example, the :term:`OpenEmbedded-Core (OE-Core)` layer provides both
+      the GPL-2.0-only and MIT license files, and a "LICENSE" file to explain
+      how these two licenses are attributed to files found in the layer.
+
 -  :term:`LIC_FILES_CHKSUM`: The OpenEmbedded build system uses this
    variable to make sure the license text has not changed. If it has,
    the build produces an error and it affords you the chance to figure