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doc: update license metadata section with modern practices

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Grayson Tinker
2026-10-12 13:09:39 -06:00
parent 8ba236fec7
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1 changed files with 15 additions and 10 deletions
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doc/stdenv/meta.chapter.md
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@@ -77,15 +77,20 @@ A link or a list of links to the location of Changelog for a package. A link may
### `license` {#var-meta-license}
The license, or licenses, for the package. One from the attribute set defined in [`nixpkgs/lib/licenses/licenses.nix`](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/master/lib/licenses/licenses.nix). At this moment using both a list of licenses and a single license is valid. If the license field is in the form of a list representation, then it means that parts of the package are licensed differently. Each license should preferably be referenced by their attribute. The non-list attribute value can also be a space delimited string representation of the contained attribute `shortNames` or `spdxIds`. The following are all valid examples:
The license, or licenses, for the package.
The following are all valid examples:
- Single license referenced by attribute (preferred) `lib.licenses.gpl3Only`.
- Single license referenced by its attribute shortName (frowned upon) `"gpl3Only"`.
- Single license referenced by its attribute spdxId (frowned upon) `"GPL-3.0-only"`.
- Multiple licenses referenced by attribute (preferred) `with lib.licenses; [ asl20 free ofl ]`.
- Multiple licenses referenced as a space delimited string of attribute shortNames (frowned upon) `"asl20 free ofl"`.
- Single license covering the entire package: `lib.licenses.gpl3Only`.
- Multiple licenses covering the same part of a package, where users can select which to use: `with lib.licenses; OR [ mit asl20 ]`.
- Multiple licenses covering a package, where users are bound by the obligations of all: `with lib.licenses; AND [ bsd3 cc0 ]`.
- This applies when the package directly incorporates code under another license.
For details, see [Licenses](#sec-meta-license).
These compound licenses may also be combined within each other: `with lib.licenses; AND [ (OR [ mit asl20 ]) gpl3Plus ]`.
The list of valid licenses is defined in [`nixpkgs/lib/licenses/licenses.nix`](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/master/lib/licenses/licenses.nix).
See [Licenses](#sec-meta-license) for additional generic values.
Custom licenses may be specified directly in the `license` field, using the `lib.licenses.mkLicense` function.
This should only be done when the license doesn't have an SPDX identifier and is unlikely to be useful for other packages.
### `sourceProvenance` {#var-meta-sourceProvenance}
@@ -220,9 +225,9 @@ If this list is not empty, the package is marked as "insecure", meaning that it
## Licenses {#sec-meta-license}
The `meta.license` attribute should preferably contain a value from `lib.licenses` defined in [`nixpkgs/lib/licenses/licenses.nix`](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/master/lib/licenses/licenses.nix), or in-place license description of the same format if the license is unlikely to be useful in another expression.
Although it’s typically better to indicate the specific license, a few generic options are available:
When available, use a value from `lib.licenses` defined in [`nixpkgs/lib/licenses/licenses.nix`](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/master/lib/licenses/licenses.nix).
Otherwise, a custom license can be defined using `lib.licenses.mkLicense`.
These generic options are also available:
### `lib.licenses.free`, `"free"` {#lib.licenses.free-free}