Software Package Data Exchange

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For networking protocol, see SPDY.
SPDX logo with black letters

Software Package Data Exchange (SPDX) is an open standard for software bill of materials (SBOM).[1] SPDX allows the expression of components, licenses, copyrights, security references and other metadata relating to software.[2] Its original purpose was to improve license compliance,[3] and has since been expanded to facilitate additional use-cases, such as supply-chain transparency and security.[4] SPDX is authored by the community-driven SPDX Project under the auspices of the Linux Foundation.

The current version of the standard is 2.2.1.[5]

Version history[]

Specification versions
Version number Publication date Notes References
1.0 August 2011 The first release of the SPDX specification; handles packages. [3]
1.1 August 2012 Fixed a flaw in the SPDX Package Verification Code (a cryptographic hash function) and added support for free-form comments. [6]
1.2 October 2013 Improved interaction with the SPDX License List, and added new fields for documenting extra information about software projects. [7]
2.0 May 2015 Added the ability to describe multiple packages and the relationships between different packages and files. [8]
2.1 November 2016 Added support for describing 'snippets' of code and the ability to reference non-SPDX data (such as CVEs). [9][10]
2.2 May 2020 Added 'SPDX-lite' profile for minimal software bill of materials and improved support for external references. [11]
2.2.1 October 2020 Functionally equivalent to SPDX 2.2 but with typesetting for publication as an ISO standard. [12]

The first version of the SPDX specification was intended to make compliance with software licenses easier,[3] but subsequent versions of the specification added capabilities intended for other use-cases, such as being able to contain references to known software vulnerabilities.[10] Recent versions of SPDX fulfill the NTIA's 'Minimum Elements For a Software Bill of Materials'.[13]

SPDX 2.2.1 was submitted to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in October, 2020, and was published as ISO/IEC 5962:2021 Information technology — SPDX® Specification V2.2.1 in August, 2021.[12][14]

License syntax[]

Each license is identified by a full name, such as "Mozilla Public License 2.0" and a short identifier, here "MPL-2.0". Licenses can be combined by operators AND and OR, and grouping (, ).

For example, (Apache-2.0 OR MIT) means that one can choose between Apache-2.0 (Apache License) or MIT (MIT license). On the other hand, (Apache-2.0 AND MIT) means that both licenses apply.

There is also a "+" operator, when applied to a license, means that future versions of the license apply as well. For example, Apache-1.1+ means that Apache-1.1 and Apache-2.0 may apply (and future versions if any).

SPDX describes the exact terms under which a piece of software is licensed. It does not attempt to categorize licenses by type, for instance by describing licenses with similar terms to the BSD License as "BSD-like".[15]

In 2020, the European Commission publishes its Joinup Licensing Assistant,[16] which makes possible the selection and comparison of more than 50 licenses, with access to their SPDX identifier and full text.

Deprecated license identifiers[]

The GNU family of licenses (e.g., GNU General Public License version 2) have the choice of choosing a later version of the license built in. Sometimes, it was not clear, whether the SPDX expression GPL-2.0 meant "exactly GPL version 2.0" or "GPL version 2.0 or any later version".[17] Thus, since version 3.0 of the SPDX License List, the GNU family of licenses got new names.[18] GPL-2.0-only means "exactly version 2.0" and GPL-2.0-or-later means "version 2.0 or any later version".

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ Stewart, Kate (May 25, 2021). "SPDX: It's Already in Use for Global Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) and Supply Chain Security". Linux Foundation. Retrieved 2021-08-13.
  2. ^ "Survey of Existing SBOM Formats and Standards" (PDF). National Telecommunications and Information Administration. October 25, 2019. p. 9. Retrieved 2021-08-13.
  3. ^ a b c Bridgwater, Adrian (August 19, 2011). "Linux Foundation eases open source licensing woes". Computer Weekly. Retrieved 2021-08-13.
  4. ^ Rushgrove, Gareth (June 16, 2021). "Advancing SBOM standards: Snyk and SPDX". Retrieved 2021-08-14.
  5. ^ "SPDX Current version". spdx.dev. Retrieved 2021-12-01.
  6. ^ "The Linux Foundation's SPDX Workgroup Releases New Version of Software Package Data Exchange Standard". Linux Foundation. August 30, 2012. Retrieved 2021-12-01.
  7. ^ "The Linux Foundation's SPDX Workgroup Releases New Version of Software Package Data Exchange Standard". Linux Foundation. October 22, 2013. Retrieved 2021-12-01.
  8. ^ "What's new in SPDX 2.0". LWN.net. May 20, 2015. Retrieved 2021-12-01.
  9. ^ "General Meeting/Minutes/2016-11-03". wiki.spdx.org. November 3, 2016. Retrieved 2021-12-01.
  10. ^ a b "The Linux Foundation's Open Compliance Initiative Releases New SPDX Specification". Linux Foundation. October 4, 2016. Retrieved 2021-12-01.
  11. ^ "SPDX 2.2 Specification Released". Linux Foundation. May 7, 2020. Retrieved 2021-12-01.
  12. ^ a b "ISO/IEC 5962:2021 Information technology — SPDX® Specification V2.2.1". iso.org. Retrieved 2021-12-01.
  13. ^ "The Minimum Elements For a Software Bill of Materials (SBOM)" (PDF). National Telecommunications and Information Administration. Retrieved 2021-12-01.
  14. ^ Bernard, Allen (September 9, 2021). "SPDX becomes internationally recognized standard". TechRepublic. Retrieved 2021-12-01.
  15. ^ Odence, Phil (2010-06-23). "The Software Package Data Exchange (SPDX) Format". Dr Dobb's. Retrieved 2012-08-31.
  16. ^ "Joinup Licensing Assistant". Retrieved 31 March 2020.
  17. ^ Richard Stallman. "For Clarity's Sake, Please Don't Say "Licensed under GNU GPL 2"!". gnu.org. Retrieved 2018-05-24.
  18. ^ Jilayne Lovejoy (5 January 2018). "License List 3.0 Released!". spdx.dev. Archived from the original on 2018-01-05. Retrieved 2021-09-02.

External links[]

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