Re: [PATCH v3 2/2] checkpatch: Add option to not force /* */ for SPDX

[Simon Glass]

Hi Petr,

On Wed, 8 Apr 2026 at 06:06, Petr Vorel <pvorel@xxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> Add option --ignore-old-toolchain to not force /* */ for SPDX.
>
> As documented in aa19a176df95d6, this is required for some old
> toolchains still have older assembler tools which cannot handle C++
> style comments. This allows avoid forcing this for for projects which
> vendored checkpatch.pl (e.g. LTP or u-boot).
>
> Signed-off-by: Petr Vorel <pvorel@xxxxxxx>
> ---
> New in v3.
>
> I suppose you will not want to add code which should not be used on
> mainline. But it would help to not force other projects which vendored
> checkpatch.pl to neither force /* */ nor carry extra patch.
>
> I wonder if this rule is still relevant (are these old toolchains still
> being used).
>
> Kind regards,
> Petr
>
>  scripts/checkpatch.pl | 7 ++++++-
>  1 file changed, 6 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
>
> diff --git a/scripts/checkpatch.pl b/scripts/checkpatch.pl
> index 58f3d5a98204c..ec1e9670a0c1d 100755
> --- a/scripts/checkpatch.pl
> +++ b/scripts/checkpatch.pl
> @@ -61,6 +61,7 @@ my $def_configuration_dirs = ".:$ENV{HOME}:.scripts";
>  my $env_config_dir = 'CHECKPATCH_CONFIG_DIR';
>  my $max_line_length = 100;
>  my $ignore_perl_version = 0;
> +my $ignore_old_toolchain = 0;
>  my $minimum_perl_version = 5.10.0;
>  my $min_conf_desc_length = 4;
>  my $spelling_file = "$D/spelling.txt";
> @@ -137,6 +138,9 @@ Options:
>                               file.  It's your fault if there's no backup or git
>    --ignore-perl-version      override checking of perl version.  expect
>                               runtime errors.
> +  --ignore-old-toolchain     don't force C++ comments (/* */) for SPDX license
> +                             (required by old toolchains). NOTE: it should *not*
> +                             be used for Linux mainline.
>    --codespell                Use the codespell dictionary for spelling/typos
>                               (default:$codespellfile)
>    --codespellfile            Use this codespell dictionary
> @@ -346,6 +350,7 @@ GetOptions(
>         'fix!'          => \$fix,
>         'fix-inplace!'  => \$fix_inplace,
>         'ignore-perl-version!' => \$ignore_perl_version,
> +       'ignore-old-toolchain!' => \$ignore_old_toolchain,
>         'debug=s'       => \%debug,
>         'test-only=s'   => \$tst_only,
>         'codespell!'    => \$codespell,
> @@ -3812,7 +3817,7 @@ sub process {
>                         } elsif ($rawline =~ /^\+/) {
>                                 my $comment = "";
>                                 if ($realfile =~ /\.(h|s|S)$/) {
> -                                       $comment = '/*';
> +                                       $comment = $ignore_old_toolchain ? '//' : '/*';
>                                 } elsif ($realfile =~ /\.(c|rs|dts|dtsi)$/) {
>                                         $comment = '//';
>                                 } elsif (($checklicenseline == 2) || $realfile =~ /\.(sh|pl|py|awk|tc|yaml)$/) {
> --
> 2.53.0
>

Is the help text swapped? To my mind /* */ is C-style.

The option name is quite generic for something that only controls SPDX
comment style - how about --spdx-cxx-comments ?

Regards,
Simon