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linux/Documentation/feature-removal-schedule.txt
Michael Buesch c557289cb8 b43: Change schedule for old-fw support removal 
The scheduled date for the removal of old fw support was in July 2008.
However, we're not going to remove the support unless it causes a major
headache. So change the schedule from "July 2008" to "when it causes headaches".

Signed-off-by: Michael Buesch <mb@bu3sch.de>
Signed-off-by: John W. Linville <linville@tuxdriver.com>
2009-01-29 15:59:41 -05:00

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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: The schedule was July 2008, but it was decided that we are going to keep the
code as long as there are no major maintanance headaches.
So it _could_ be removed _any_ time now, if it conflicts with something new.
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>
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