Hi, Heinz,

I would say the most important difference between 2.0 and 1.x is the addition 
of relationships. Reltionships can describe how a file is related to its 
containing package and how a package is related to other packages. Other 
differences include annotations to document reviewing information, ability to 
reference external SPDX documents, and a few other changes.  You can find a 
full listing of differences on page 8 of the 2.0 spec 
(https://spdx.org/sites/cpstandard/files/pages/files/spdx-2.0.pdf),

Generally, the ability to take advantage of relationships has been limited by 
the constraint that in order to document a relationship to a package in SPDX 
2.0, the full contents of that package must also be documented. For this 
reason, when BlackDuck generates SPDX 2.0 (using its knowledge 
base<https://www.blackducksoftware.com/products/knowledgebase> of over 1.1 
million open source projects), we use the more generic artifactOf field to 
presenting relationships of scanned projects to detected open source 
components. If you’d like more information about Black Duck products, I’d be 
happy to put you in touch with a product specialist.

It’s important to note that the newly-release SPDX 2.1 specification alleviates 
the above limitation, thus allowing for very meaningful and descriptive use of 
relationships. It also has support for external references, such as those to 
vulnerability databases and package managers, and snippets, allowing you to 
document which portions of a file are related to other files or packages. The 
specification of SPDX 2.1 is available here 
(https://spdx.org/sites/cpstandard/files/pages/files/spdxversion2.1.pdf) and a 
full listing of differences between the previous specification starts on page 
7. If you are looking to institutionalize support for SPDX, I would suggest 
going with the new 2.1 specification.

I hope this helps. Please let me know if I can answer any further questions.


[cid:[email protected]]
Yev Bronshteyn 

Senior Software Engineer

E: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>

blackducksoftware.com<https://www.blackducksoftware.com/>


P.S. I will be doing a more detailed presentation on the underpinnings of SPDX 
at LinuxCon Europe in Berlin. I hope to see you there.

From: <[email protected]> on behalf of 
"[email protected]" <[email protected]>
Date: Wednesday, July 27, 2016 at 9:22 AM
To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>
Subject: Question about different SPDX versions

Dear Sir or Madam,

I would like to get detailed information about differences in the versions of 
the specification 1.x and 2.0. We want to use the SPDX for the exchange of FOSS 
related information. We have several development teams and one of them is using 
Yocto and therefore only the SPDX version 1.x is available.

Is there a documentation available showing the differences of the specification 
versions? How long will be SPDX 1.x supported? How is your experience with 
tools, e.g. BlackDuck, … Do they support different versions of the 
specification?

Viele Grüße / Best Regards,
Heinz Hille

Daimler AG
Group Research & Advanced Engineering
Safeguarding Hardware & Software (RD/EEQ)

HPC G012-BB
Hanns-Klemm-Str. 45
71034 Böblingen
Deutschland

Mobile: +4915158613567
Fax: +49 711 3052140503
email: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>


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