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Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/feature-removal-schedule.txt')
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1 files changed, 0 insertions, 346 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/feature-removal-schedule.txt b/Documentation/feature-removal-schedule.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 20d3b94703a..00000000000 --- a/Documentation/feature-removal-schedule.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,346 +0,0 @@ -The following is a list of files and features that are going to be -removed in the kernel source tree. Every entry should contain what -exactly is going away, why it is happening, and who is going to be doing -the work. When the feature is removed from the kernel, it should also -be removed from this file. - ---------------------------- - -What: old static regulatory information and ieee80211_regdom module parameter -When: 2.6.29 -Why: The old regulatory infrastructure has been replaced with a new one - which does not require statically defined regulatory domains. We do - not want to keep static regulatory domains in the kernel due to the - the dynamic nature of regulatory law and localization. We kept around - the old static definitions for the regulatory domains of: - * US - * JP - * EU - and used by default the US when CONFIG_WIRELESS_OLD_REGULATORY was - set. We also kept around the ieee80211_regdom module parameter in case - some applications were relying on it. Changing regulatory domains - can now be done instead by using nl80211, as is done with iw. -Who: Luis R. Rodriguez <lrodriguez@atheros.com> - ---------------------------- - -What: dev->power.power_state -When: July 2007 -Why: Broken design for runtime control over driver power states, confusing - driver-internal runtime power management with: mechanisms to support - system-wide sleep state transitions; event codes that distinguish - different phases of swsusp "sleep" transitions; and userspace policy - inputs. This framework was never widely used, and most attempts to - use it were broken. Drivers should instead be exposing domain-specific - interfaces either to kernel or to userspace. -Who: Pavel Machek <pavel@suse.cz> - ---------------------------- - -What: Video4Linux API 1 ioctls and video_decoder.h from Video devices. -When: December 2008 -Files: include/linux/video_decoder.h include/linux/videodev.h -Check: include/linux/video_decoder.h include/linux/videodev.h -Why: V4L1 AP1 was replaced by V4L2 API during migration from 2.4 to 2.6 - series. The old API have lots of drawbacks and don't provide enough - means to work with all video and audio standards. The newer API is - already available on the main drivers and should be used instead. - Newer drivers should use v4l_compat_translate_ioctl function to handle - old calls, replacing to newer ones. - Decoder iocts are using internally to allow video drivers to - communicate with video decoders. This should also be improved to allow - V4L2 calls being translated into compatible internal ioctls. - Compatibility ioctls will be provided, for a while, via - v4l1-compat module. -Who: Mauro Carvalho Chehab <mchehab@infradead.org> - ---------------------------- - -What: PCMCIA control ioctl (needed for pcmcia-cs [cardmgr, cardctl]) -When: November 2005 -Files: drivers/pcmcia/: pcmcia_ioctl.c -Why: With the 16-bit PCMCIA subsystem now behaving (almost) like a - normal hotpluggable bus, and with it using the default kernel - infrastructure (hotplug, driver core, sysfs) keeping the PCMCIA - control ioctl needed by cardmgr and cardctl from pcmcia-cs is - unnecessary, and makes further cleanups and integration of the - PCMCIA subsystem into the Linux kernel device driver model more - difficult. The features provided by cardmgr and cardctl are either - handled by the kernel itself now or are available in the new - pcmciautils package available at - http://kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/pcmcia/ -Who: Dominik Brodowski <linux@brodo.de> - ---------------------------- - -What: sys_sysctl -When: September 2010 -Option: CONFIG_SYSCTL_SYSCALL -Why: The same information is available in a more convenient from - /proc/sys, and none of the sysctl variables appear to be - important performance wise. - - Binary sysctls are a long standing source of subtle kernel - bugs and security issues. - - When I looked several months ago all I could find after - searching several distributions were 5 user space programs and - glibc (which falls back to /proc/sys) using this syscall. - - The man page for sysctl(2) documents it as unusable for user - space programs. - - sysctl(2) is not generally ABI compatible to a 32bit user - space application on a 64bit and a 32bit kernel. - - For the last several months the policy has been no new binary - sysctls and no one has put forward an argument to use them. - - Binary sysctls issues seem to keep happening appearing so - properly deprecating them (with a warning to user space) and a - 2 year grace warning period will mean eventually we can kill - them and end the pain. - - In the mean time individual binary sysctls can be dealt with - in a piecewise fashion. - -Who: Eric Biederman <ebiederm@xmission.com> - ---------------------------- - -What: remove EXPORT_SYMBOL(kernel_thread) -When: August 2006 -Files: arch/*/kernel/*_ksyms.c -Check: kernel_thread -Why: kernel_thread is a low-level implementation detail. Drivers should - use the <linux/kthread.h> API instead which shields them from - implementation details and provides a higherlevel interface that - prevents bugs and code duplication -Who: Christoph Hellwig <hch@lst.de> - ---------------------------- - -What: Unused EXPORT_SYMBOL/EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL exports - (temporary transition config option provided until then) - The transition config option will also be removed at the same time. -When: before 2.6.19 -Why: Unused symbols are both increasing the size of the kernel binary - and are often a sign of "wrong API" -Who: Arjan van de Ven <arjan@linux.intel.com> - ---------------------------- - -What: PHYSDEVPATH, PHYSDEVBUS, PHYSDEVDRIVER in the uevent environment -When: October 2008 -Why: The stacking of class devices makes these values misleading and - inconsistent. - Class devices should not carry any of these properties, and bus - devices have SUBSYTEM and DRIVER as a replacement. -Who: Kay Sievers <kay.sievers@suse.de> - ---------------------------- - -What: ACPI procfs interface -When: July 2008 -Why: ACPI sysfs conversion should be finished by January 2008. - ACPI procfs interface will be removed in July 2008 so that - there is enough time for the user space to catch up. -Who: Zhang Rui <rui.zhang@intel.com> - ---------------------------- - -What: /proc/acpi/button -When: August 2007 -Why: /proc/acpi/button has been replaced by events to the input layer - since 2.6.20. -Who: Len Brown <len.brown@intel.com> - ---------------------------- - -What: /proc/acpi/event -When: February 2008 -Why: /proc/acpi/event has been replaced by events via the input layer - and netlink since 2.6.23. -Who: Len Brown <len.brown@intel.com> - ---------------------------- - -What: libata spindown skipping and warning -When: Dec 2008 -Why: Some halt(8) implementations synchronize caches for and spin - down libata disks because libata didn't use to spin down disk on - system halt (only synchronized caches). - Spin down on system halt is now implemented. sysfs node - /sys/class/scsi_disk/h:c:i:l/manage_start_stop is present if - spin down support is available. - Because issuing spin down command to an already spun down disk - makes some disks spin up just to spin down again, libata tracks - device spindown status to skip the extra spindown command and - warn about it. - This is to give userspace tools the time to get updated and will - be removed after userspace is reasonably updated. -Who: Tejun Heo <htejun@gmail.com> - ---------------------------- - -What: i386/x86_64 bzImage symlinks -When: April 2010 - -Why: The i386/x86_64 merge provides a symlink to the old bzImage - location so not yet updated user space tools, e.g. package - scripts, do not break. -Who: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de> - ---------------------------- - -What (Why): - - include/linux/netfilter_ipv4/ipt_TOS.h ipt_tos.h header files - (superseded by xt_TOS/xt_tos target & match) - - - "forwarding" header files like ipt_mac.h in - include/linux/netfilter_ipv4/ and include/linux/netfilter_ipv6/ - - - xt_CONNMARK match revision 0 - (superseded by xt_CONNMARK match revision 1) - - - xt_MARK target revisions 0 and 1 - (superseded by xt_MARK match revision 2) - - - xt_connmark match revision 0 - (superseded by xt_connmark match revision 1) - - - xt_conntrack match revision 0 - (superseded by xt_conntrack match revision 1) - - - xt_iprange match revision 0, - include/linux/netfilter_ipv4/ipt_iprange.h - (superseded by xt_iprange match revision 1) - - - xt_mark match revision 0 - (superseded by xt_mark match revision 1) - - - xt_recent: the old ipt_recent proc dir - (superseded by /proc/net/xt_recent) - -When: January 2009 or Linux 2.7.0, whichever comes first -Why: Superseded by newer revisions or modules -Who: Jan Engelhardt <jengelh@computergmbh.de> - ---------------------------- - -What: b43 support for firmware revision < 410 -When: July 2008 -Why: The support code for the old firmware hurts code readability/maintainability - and slightly hurts runtime performance. Bugfixes for the old firmware - are not provided by Broadcom anymore. -Who: Michael Buesch <mb@bu3sch.de> - ---------------------------- - -What: usedac i386 kernel parameter -When: 2.6.27 -Why: replaced by allowdac and no dac combination -Who: Glauber Costa <gcosta@redhat.com> - ---------------------------- - -What: remove HID compat support -When: 2.6.29 -Why: needed only as a temporary solution until distros fix themselves up -Who: Jiri Slaby <jirislaby@gmail.com> - ---------------------------- - -What: print_fn_descriptor_symbol() -When: October 2009 -Why: The %pF vsprintf format provides the same functionality in a - simpler way. print_fn_descriptor_symbol() is deprecated but - still present to give out-of-tree modules time to change. -Who: Bjorn Helgaas <bjorn.helgaas@hp.com> - ---------------------------- - -What: /sys/o2cb symlink -When: January 2010 -Why: /sys/fs/o2cb is the proper location for this information - /sys/o2cb - exists as a symlink for backwards compatibility for old versions of - ocfs2-tools. 2 years should be sufficient time to phase in new versions - which know to look in /sys/fs/o2cb. -Who: ocfs2-devel@oss.oracle.com - ---------------------------- - -What: SCTP_GET_PEER_ADDRS_NUM_OLD, SCTP_GET_PEER_ADDRS_OLD, - SCTP_GET_LOCAL_ADDRS_NUM_OLD, SCTP_GET_LOCAL_ADDRS_OLD -When: June 2009 -Why: A newer version of the options have been introduced in 2005 that - removes the limitions of the old API. The sctp library has been - converted to use these new options at the same time. Any user - space app that directly uses the old options should convert to using - the new options. -Who: Vlad Yasevich <vladislav.yasevich@hp.com> - ---------------------------- - -What: CONFIG_THERMAL_HWMON -When: January 2009 -Why: This option was introduced just to allow older lm-sensors userspace - to keep working over the upgrade to 2.6.26. At the scheduled time of - removal fixed lm-sensors (2.x or 3.x) should be readily available. -Who: Rene Herman <rene.herman@gmail.com> - ---------------------------- - -What: Code that is now under CONFIG_WIRELESS_EXT_SYSFS - (in net/core/net-sysfs.c) -When: After the only user (hal) has seen a release with the patches - for enough time, probably some time in 2010. -Why: Over 1K .text/.data size reduction, data is available in other - ways (ioctls) -Who: Johannes Berg <johannes@sipsolutions.net> - ---------------------------- - -What: CONFIG_NF_CT_ACCT -When: 2.6.29 -Why: Accounting can now be enabled/disabled without kernel recompilation. - Currently used only to set a default value for a feature that is also - controlled by a kernel/module/sysfs/sysctl parameter. -Who: Krzysztof Piotr Oledzki <ole@ans.pl> - ---------------------------- - -What: i2c_attach_client(), i2c_detach_client(), i2c_driver->detach_client() -When: 2.6.29 (ideally) or 2.6.30 (more likely) -Why: Deprecated by the new (standard) device driver binding model. Use - i2c_driver->probe() and ->remove() instead. -Who: Jean Delvare <khali@linux-fr.org> - ---------------------------- - -What: fscher and fscpos drivers -When: June 2009 -Why: Deprecated by the new fschmd driver. -Who: Hans de Goede <hdegoede@redhat.com> - Jean Delvare <khali@linux-fr.org> - ---------------------------- - -What: SELinux "compat_net" functionality -When: 2.6.30 at the earliest -Why: In 2.6.18 the Secmark concept was introduced to replace the "compat_net" - network access control functionality of SELinux. Secmark offers both - better performance and greater flexibility than the "compat_net" - mechanism. Now that the major Linux distributions have moved to - Secmark, it is time to deprecate the older mechanism and start the - process of removing the old code. -Who: Paul Moore <paul.moore@hp.com> ---------------------------- - -What: sysfs ui for changing p4-clockmod parameters -When: September 2009 -Why: See commits 129f8ae9b1b5be94517da76009ea956e89104ce8 and - e088e4c9cdb618675874becb91b2fd581ee707e6. - Removal is subject to fixing any remaining bugs in ACPI which may - cause the thermal throttling not to happen at the right time. -Who: Dave Jones <davej@redhat.com>, Matthew Garrett <mjg@redhat.com> |