We expect all new code to be contributed with the "GPL-2.0-or-later"
license tag. Divergance is permitted if the new file is derived from
pre-existing code under a different license, whether from elsewhere
in QEMU codebase, or outside.

Issue a warning if the declared license is not "GPL-2.0-or-later",
and an error if the license is not one of the handful of the
expected licenses to prevent unintended proliferation. The warning
asks users to explain their unusual choice of license in the commit
message.

Signed-off-by: Daniel P. Berrangé <berrange@redhat.com>
---
 scripts/checkpatch.pl | 68 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 68 insertions(+)

diff --git a/scripts/checkpatch.pl b/scripts/checkpatch.pl
index d946121b8e..b507da8e2b 100755
--- a/scripts/checkpatch.pl
+++ b/scripts/checkpatch.pl
@@ -1353,6 +1353,69 @@ sub checkfilename {
 	}
 }
 
+sub checkspdx {
+    my ($file, $expr) = @_;
+
+    # Imported Linux headers probably have SPDX tags, but if they
+    # don't we're not requiring contributors to fix this, as these
+    # files are not expected to be modified locally in QEMU
+    if ($file =~ m,include/standard-headers, ||
+	$file =~ m,linux-headers,) {
+	return;
+    }
+
+    my $origexpr = $expr;
+
+    # Flatten sub-expressions
+    $expr =~ s/\(|\)/ /g;
+    $expr =~ s/OR|AND/ /g;
+
+    # Merge WITH exceptions to the license
+    $expr =~ s/\s+WITH\s+/-WITH-/g;
+
+    # Cull more leading/trailing whitespace
+    $expr =~ s/^\s*//g;
+    $expr =~ s/\s*$//g;
+
+    my @bits = split / +/, $expr;
+
+    my $prefer = "GPL-2.0-or-later";
+    my @valid = qw(
+	LGPL-2.0-or-later
+	LGPL-2.1-or-later
+	GPL-2.0-only
+	LGPL-2.0-only
+	LGPL-2.0-only
+	BSD-2-Clause
+	BSD-3-Clause
+	MIT
+	);
+
+    my $nonpreferred = 0;
+    my @unknown = ();
+    foreach my $bit (@bits) {
+	if ($bit eq $prefer) {
+	    next;
+	}
+	if (grep /^$bit$/, @valid) {
+	    $nonpreferred = 1;
+	} else {
+	    push @unknown, $bit;
+	}
+    }
+    if (@unknown) {
+	ERROR("Saw unacceptable licenses '" . join(',', @unknown) .
+	      "', valid choices for QEMU are:\n" . join("\n", $prefer, @valid));
+    }
+
+    if ($nonpreferred) {
+	WARN("Saw acceptable license '$origexpr' but note '$prefer' is preferred " .
+	     "for new files unless the code is derived from a source with an " .
+	     "existed declared license that must be followed. Please explain " .
+	     "license choice in the commit message");
+    }
+}
+
 sub process {
 	my $filename = shift;
 
@@ -1641,6 +1704,11 @@ sub process {
 		    }
 		}
 
+# Check SPDX-License-Identifier references a permitted license
+		if ($rawline =~ m,SPDX-License-Identifier: (.*?)(\*/)?\s*$,) {
+		    &checkspdx($realfile, $1);
+		}
+
 # Check for wrappage within a valid hunk of the file
 		if ($realcnt != 0 && $line !~ m{^(?:\+|-| |\\ No newline|$)}) {
 			ERROR("patch seems to be corrupt (line wrapped?)\n" .
-- 
2.46.0