linux/Documentation/ABI
Linus Torvalds 73287a43cc Merge git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/davem/net-next
Pull networking updates from David Miller:
 "Highlights (1721 non-merge commits, this has to be a record of some
  sort):

   1) Add 'random' mode to team driver, from Jiri Pirko and Eric
      Dumazet.

   2) Make it so that any driver that supports configuration of multiple
      MAC addresses can provide the forwarding database add and del
      calls by providing a default implementation and hooking that up if
      the driver doesn't have an explicit set of handlers.  From Vlad
      Yasevich.

   3) Support GSO segmentation over tunnels and other encapsulating
      devices such as VXLAN, from Pravin B Shelar.

   4) Support L2 GRE tunnels in the flow dissector, from Michael Dalton.

   5) Implement Tail Loss Probe (TLP) detection in TCP, from Nandita
      Dukkipati.

   6) In the PHY layer, allow supporting wake-on-lan in situations where
      the PHY registers have to be written for it to be configured.

      Use it to support wake-on-lan in mv643xx_eth.

      From Michael Stapelberg.

   7) Significantly improve firewire IPV6 support, from YOSHIFUJI
      Hideaki.

   8) Allow multiple packets to be sent in a single transmission using
      network coding in batman-adv, from Martin Hundebøll.

   9) Add support for T5 cxgb4 chips, from Santosh Rastapur.

  10) Generalize the VXLAN forwarding tables so that there is more
      flexibility in configurating various aspects of the endpoints.
      From David Stevens.

  11) Support RSS and TSO in hardware over GRE tunnels in bxn2x driver,
      from Dmitry Kravkov.

  12) Zero copy support in nfnelink_queue, from Eric Dumazet and Pablo
      Neira Ayuso.

  13) Start adding networking selftests.

  14) In situations of overload on the same AF_PACKET fanout socket, or
      per-cpu packet receive queue, minimize drop by distributing the
      load to other cpus/fanouts.  From Willem de Bruijn and Eric
      Dumazet.

  15) Add support for new payload offset BPF instruction, from Daniel
      Borkmann.

  16) Convert several drivers over to mdoule_platform_driver(), from
      Sachin Kamat.

  17) Provide a minimal BPF JIT image disassembler userspace tool, from
      Daniel Borkmann.

  18) Rewrite F-RTO implementation in TCP to match the final
      specification of it in RFC4138 and RFC5682.  From Yuchung Cheng.

  19) Provide netlink socket diag of netlink sockets ("Yo dawg, I hear
      you like netlink, so I implemented netlink dumping of netlink
      sockets.") From Andrey Vagin.

  20) Remove ugly passing of rtnetlink attributes into rtnl_doit
      functions, from Thomas Graf.

  21) Allow userspace to be able to see if a configuration change occurs
      in the middle of an address or device list dump, from Nicolas
      Dichtel.

  22) Support RFC3168 ECN protection for ipv6 fragments, from Hannes
      Frederic Sowa.

  23) Increase accuracy of packet length used by packet scheduler, from
      Jason Wang.

  24) Beginning set of changes to make ipv4/ipv6 fragment handling more
      scalable and less susceptible to overload and locking contention,
      from Jesper Dangaard Brouer.

  25) Get rid of using non-type-safe NLMSG_* macros and use nlmsg_*()
      instead.  From Hong Zhiguo.

  26) Optimize route usage in IPVS by avoiding reference counting where
      possible, from Julian Anastasov.

  27) Convert IPVS schedulers to RCU, also from Julian Anastasov.

  28) Support cpu fanouts in xt_NFQUEUE netfilter target, from Holger
      Eitzenberger.

  29) Network namespace support for nf_log, ebt_log, xt_LOG, ipt_ULOG,
      nfnetlink_log, and nfnetlink_queue.  From Gao feng.

  30) Implement RFC3168 ECN protection, from Hannes Frederic Sowa.

  31) Support several new r8169 chips, from Hayes Wang.

  32) Support tokenized interface identifiers in ipv6, from Daniel
      Borkmann.

  33) Use usbnet_link_change() helper in USB net driver, from Ming Lei.

  34) Add 802.1ad vlan offload support, from Patrick McHardy.

  35) Support mmap() based netlink communication, also from Patrick
      McHardy.

  36) Support HW timestamping in mlx4 driver, from Amir Vadai.

  37) Rationalize AF_PACKET packet timestamping when transmitting, from
      Willem de Bruijn and Daniel Borkmann.

  38) Bring parity to what's provided by /proc/net/packet socket dumping
      and the info provided by netlink socket dumping of AF_PACKET
      sockets.  From Nicolas Dichtel.

  39) Fix peeking beyond zero sized SKBs in AF_UNIX, from Benjamin
      Poirier"

* git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/davem/net-next: (1722 commits)
  filter: fix va_list build error
  af_unix: fix a fatal race with bit fields
  bnx2x: Prevent memory leak when cnic is absent
  bnx2x: correct reading of speed capabilities
  net: sctp: attribute printl with __printf for gcc fmt checks
  netlink: kconfig: move mmap i/o into netlink kconfig
  netpoll: convert mutex into a semaphore
  netlink: Fix skb ref counting.
  net_sched: act_ipt forward compat with xtables
  mlx4_en: fix a build error on 32bit arches
  Revert "bnx2x: allow nvram test to run when device is down"
  bridge: avoid OOPS if root port not found
  drivers: net: cpsw: fix kernel warn on cpsw irq enable
  sh_eth: use random MAC address if no valid one supplied
  3c509.c: call SET_NETDEV_DEV for all device types (ISA/ISAPnP/EISA)
  tg3: fix to append hardware time stamping flags
  unix/stream: fix peeking with an offset larger than data in queue
  unix/dgram: fix peeking with an offset larger than data in queue
  unix/dgram: peek beyond 0-sized skbs
  openvswitch: Remove unneeded ovs_netdev_get_ifindex()
  ...
2013-05-01 14:08:52 -07:00
..
obsolete Merge branches 'for-3.7/upstream-fixes', 'for-3.8/hidraw', 'for-3.8/i2c-hid', 'for-3.8/multitouch', 'for-3.8/roccat', 'for-3.8/sensors' and 'for-3.8/upstream' into for-linus 2012-12-12 21:41:55 +01:00
removed netfilter: remove ip_queue support 2012-05-08 20:25:42 +02:00
stable tpm: add documentation for sysfs interfaces 2013-02-05 09:38:21 -06:00
testing Merge git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/davem/net-next 2013-05-01 14:08:52 -07:00
README Documentation: remove reference to feature-removal-schedule.txt 2012-12-17 17:15:12 -08:00

README

This directory attempts to document the ABI between the Linux kernel and
userspace, and the relative stability of these interfaces.  Due to the
everchanging nature of Linux, and the differing maturity levels, these
interfaces should be used by userspace programs in different ways.

We have four different levels of ABI stability, as shown by the four
different subdirectories in this location.  Interfaces may change levels
of stability according to the rules described below.

The different levels of stability are:

  stable/
	This directory documents the interfaces that the developer has
	defined to be stable.  Userspace programs are free to use these
	interfaces with no restrictions, and backward compatibility for
	them will be guaranteed for at least 2 years.  Most interfaces
	(like syscalls) are expected to never change and always be
	available.

  testing/
	This directory documents interfaces that are felt to be stable,
	as the main development of this interface has been completed.
	The interface can be changed to add new features, but the
	current interface will not break by doing this, unless grave
	errors or security problems are found in them.  Userspace
	programs can start to rely on these interfaces, but they must be
	aware of changes that can occur before these interfaces move to
	be marked stable.  Programs that use these interfaces are
	strongly encouraged to add their name to the description of
	these interfaces, so that the kernel developers can easily
	notify them if any changes occur (see the description of the
	layout of the files below for details on how to do this.)

  obsolete/
  	This directory documents interfaces that are still remaining in
	the kernel, but are marked to be removed at some later point in
	time.  The description of the interface will document the reason
	why it is obsolete and when it can be expected to be removed.

  removed/
	This directory contains a list of the old interfaces that have
	been removed from the kernel.

Every file in these directories will contain the following information:

What:		Short description of the interface
Date:		Date created
KernelVersion:	Kernel version this feature first showed up in.
Contact:	Primary contact for this interface (may be a mailing list)
Description:	Long description of the interface and how to use it.
Users:		All users of this interface who wish to be notified when
		it changes.  This is very important for interfaces in
		the "testing" stage, so that kernel developers can work
		with userspace developers to ensure that things do not
		break in ways that are unacceptable.  It is also
		important to get feedback for these interfaces to make
		sure they are working in a proper way and do not need to
		be changed further.


How things move between levels:

Interfaces in stable may move to obsolete, as long as the proper
notification is given.

Interfaces may be removed from obsolete and the kernel as long as the
documented amount of time has gone by.

Interfaces in the testing state can move to the stable state when the
developers feel they are finished.  They cannot be removed from the
kernel tree without going through the obsolete state first.

It's up to the developer to place their interfaces in the category they
wish for it to start out in.