Documentation/feature-removal-schedule.txt

   1 The following is a list of files and features that are going to be
   2 removed in the kernel source tree.  Every entry should contain what
   3 exactly is going away, why it is happening, and who is going to be doing
   4 the work.  When the feature is removed from the kernel, it should also
   5 be removed from this file.
   6
   7 ---------------------------
   8
   9 What:   RAW driver (CONFIG_RAW_DRIVER)
  10 When:   December 2005
  11 Why:    declared obsolete since kernel 2.6.3
  12         O_DIRECT can be used instead
  13 Who:    Adrian Bunk <bunk@stusta.de>
  14
  15 ---------------------------
  16
  17 What:   drivers that were depending on OBSOLETE_OSS_DRIVER
  18         (config options already removed)
  19 When:   before 2.6.19
  20 Why:    OSS drivers with ALSA replacements
  21 Who:    Adrian Bunk <bunk@stusta.de>
  22
  23 ---------------------------
  24
  25 What:   raw1394: requests of type RAW1394_REQ_ISO_SEND, RAW1394_REQ_ISO_LISTEN
  26 When:   November 2006
  27 Why:    Deprecated in favour of the new ioctl-based rawiso interface, which is
  28         more efficient.  You should really be using libraw1394 for raw1394
  29         access anyway.
  30 Who:    Jody McIntyre <scjody@modernduck.com>
  31
  32 ---------------------------
  33
  34 What:   sbp2: module parameter "force_inquiry_hack"
  35 When:   July 2006
  36 Why:    Superceded by parameter "workarounds". Both parameters are meant to be
  37         used ad-hoc and for single devices only, i.e. not in modprobe.conf,
  38         therefore the impact of this feature replacement should be low.
  39 Who:    Stefan Richter <stefanr@s5r6.in-berlin.de>
  40
  41 ---------------------------
  42
  43 What:   Video4Linux API 1 ioctls and video_decoder.h from Video devices.
  44 When:   July 2006
  45 Why:    V4L1 AP1 was replaced by V4L2 API. during migration from 2.4 to 2.6
  46         series. The old API have lots of drawbacks and don't provide enough
  47         means to work with all video and audio standards. The newer API is
  48         already available on the main drivers and should be used instead.
  49         Newer drivers should use v4l_compat_translate_ioctl function to handle
  50         old calls, replacing to newer ones.
  51         Decoder iocts are using internally to allow video drivers to
  52         communicate with video decoders. This should also be improved to allow
  53         V4L2 calls being translated into compatible internal ioctls.
  54 Who:    Mauro Carvalho Chehab <mchehab@brturbo.com.br>
  55
  56 ---------------------------
  57
  58 What:   PCMCIA control ioctl (needed for pcmcia-cs [cardmgr, cardctl])
  59 When:   November 2005
  60 Files:  drivers/pcmcia/: pcmcia_ioctl.c
  61 Why:    With the 16-bit PCMCIA subsystem now behaving (almost) like a
  62         normal hotpluggable bus, and with it using the default kernel
  63         infrastructure (hotplug, driver core, sysfs) keeping the PCMCIA
  64         control ioctl needed by cardmgr and cardctl from pcmcia-cs is
  65         unnecessary, and makes further cleanups and integration of the
  66         PCMCIA subsystem into the Linux kernel device driver model more
  67         difficult. The features provided by cardmgr and cardctl are either
  68         handled by the kernel itself now or are available in the new
  69         pcmciautils package available at
  70         http://kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/pcmcia/
  71 Who:    Dominik Brodowski <linux@brodo.de>
  72
  73 ---------------------------
  74
  75 What:   ip_queue and ip6_queue (old ipv4-only and ipv6-only netfilter queue)
  76 When:   December 2005
  77 Why:    This interface has been obsoleted by the new layer3-independent
  78         "nfnetlink_queue".  The Kernel interface is compatible, so the old
  79         ip[6]tables "QUEUE" targets still work and will transparently handle
  80         all packets into nfnetlink queue number 0.  Userspace users will have
  81         to link against API-compatible library on top of libnfnetlink_queue
  82         instead of the current 'libipq'.
  83 Who:    Harald Welte <laforge@netfilter.org>
  84
  85 ---------------------------
  86
  87 What:   remove EXPORT_SYMBOL(kernel_thread)
  88 When:   August 2006
  89 Files:  arch/*/kernel/*_ksyms.c
  90 Why:    kernel_thread is a low-level implementation detail.  Drivers should
  91         use the <linux/kthread.h> API instead which shields them from
  92         implementation details and provides a higherlevel interface that
  93         prevents bugs and code duplication
  94 Who:    Christoph Hellwig <hch@lst.de>
  95
  96 ---------------------------
  97
  98 What:   CONFIG_FORCED_INLINING
  99 When:   June 2006
 100 Why:    Config option is there to see if gcc is good enough. (in january
 101         2006). If it is, the behavior should just be the default. If it's not,
 102         the option should just go away entirely.
 103 Who:    Arjan van de Ven
 104
 105 ---------------------------
 106
 107 What:   START_ARRAY ioctl for md
 108 When:   July 2006
 109 Files:  drivers/md/md.c
 110 Why:    Not reliable by design - can fail when most needed.
 111         Alternatives exist
 112 Who:    NeilBrown <neilb@suse.de>
 113
 114 ---------------------------
 115
 116 What:   eepro100 network driver
 117 When:   January 2007
 118 Why:    replaced by the e100 driver
 119 Who:    Adrian Bunk <bunk@stusta.de>
 120
 121 ---------------------------
 122
 123 What:  drivers depending on OSS_OBSOLETE_DRIVER
 124 When:  options in 2.6.20, code in 2.6.22
 125 Why:   OSS drivers with ALSA replacements
 126 Who:   Adrian Bunk <bunk@stusta.de>
 127
 128 ---------------------------
 129
 130 What:   pci_module_init(driver)
 131 When:   January 2007
 132 Why:    Is replaced by pci_register_driver(pci_driver).
 133 Who:    Richard Knutsson <ricknu-0@student.ltu.se> and Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@suse.de>
 134
 135 ---------------------------
 136
 137 What:   Usage of invalid timevals in setitimer
 138 When:   March 2007
 139 Why:    POSIX requires to validate timevals in the setitimer call. This
 140         was never done by Linux. The invalid (e.g. negative timevals) were
 141         silently converted to more or less random timeouts and intervals.
 142         Until the removal a per boot limited number of warnings is printed
 143         and the timevals are sanitized.
 144
 145 Who:    Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>
 146
 147 ---------------------------
 148
 149 What:   I2C interface of the it87 driver
 150 When:   January 2007
 151 Why:    The ISA interface is faster and should be always available. The I2C
 152         probing is also known to cause trouble in at least one case (see
 153         bug #5889.)
 154 Who:    Jean Delvare <khali@linux-fr.org>
 155
 156 ---------------------------
 157
 158 What:   Unused EXPORT_SYMBOL/EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL exports
 159         (temporary transition config option provided until then)
 160         The transition config option will also be removed at the same time.
 161 When:   before 2.6.19
 162 Why:    Unused symbols are both increasing the size of the kernel binary
 163         and are often a sign of "wrong API"
 164 Who:    Arjan van de Ven <arjan@linux.intel.com>
 165
 166 ---------------------------
 167
 168 What:   mount/umount uevents
 169 When:   February 2007
 170 Why:    These events are not correct, and do not properly let userspace know
 171         when a file system has been mounted or unmounted.  Userspace should
 172         poll the /proc/mounts file instead to detect this properly.
 173 Who:    Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@suse.de>
 174
 175 ---------------------------
 176
 177 What:   USB driver API moves to EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL
 178 When:   Febuary 2008
 179 Files:  include/linux/usb.h, drivers/usb/core/driver.c
 180 Why:    The USB subsystem has changed a lot over time, and it has been
 181         possible to create userspace USB drivers using usbfs/libusb/gadgetfs
 182         that operate as fast as the USB bus allows.  Because of this, the USB
 183         subsystem will not be allowing closed source kernel drivers to
 184         register with it, after this grace period is over.  If anyone needs
 185         any help in converting their closed source drivers over to use the
 186         userspace filesystems, please contact the
 187         linux-usb-devel@lists.sourceforge.net mailing list, and the developers
 188         there will be glad to help you out.
 189 Who:    Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@suse.de>
 190
 191 ---------------------------
 192
 193 What:   find_trylock_page
 194 When:   January 2007
 195 Why:    The interface no longer has any callers left in the kernel. It
 196         is an odd interface (compared with other find_*_page functions), in
 197         that it does not take a refcount to the page, only the page lock.
 198         It should be replaced with find_get_page or find_lock_page if possible.
 199         This feature removal can be reevaluated if users of the interface
 200         cannot cleanly use something else.
 201 Who:    Nick Piggin <npiggin@suse.de>
 202
 203 ---------------------------
 204
 205 What:   Support for the MIPS EV96100 evaluation board
 206 When:   September 2006
 207 Why:    Does no longer build since at least November 15, 2003, apparently
 208         no userbase left.
 209 Who:    Ralf Baechle <ralf@linux-mips.org>
 210
 211 ---------------------------
 212
 213 What:   Support for the Momentum / PMC-Sierra Jaguar ATX evaluation board
 214 When:   September 2006
 215 Why:    Does no longer build since quite some time, and was never popular,
 216         due to the platform being replaced by successor models.  Apparently
 217         no user base left.  It also is one of the last users of
 218         WANT_PAGE_VIRTUAL.
 219 Who:    Ralf Baechle <ralf@linux-mips.org>
 220
 221 ---------------------------
 222
 223 What:   Support for the Momentum Ocelot, Ocelot 3, Ocelot C and Ocelot G
 224 When:   September 2006
 225 Why:    Some do no longer build and apparently there is no user base left
 226         for these platforms.
 227 Who:    Ralf Baechle <ralf@linux-mips.org>
 228
 229 ---------------------------
 230
 231 What:   Support for MIPS Technologies' Altas and SEAD evaluation board
 232 When:   September 2006
 233 Why:    Some do no longer build and apparently there is no user base left
 234         for these platforms.  Hardware out of production since several years.
 235 Who:    Ralf Baechle <ralf@linux-mips.org>
 236
 237 ---------------------------
 238
 239 What:   Support for the IT8172-based platforms, ITE 8172G and Globespan IVR
 240 When:   September 2006
 241 Why:    Code does no longer build since at least 2.6.0,  apparently there is
 242         no user base left for these platforms.  Hardware out of production
 243         since several years and hardly a trace of the manufacturer left on
 244         the net.
 245 Who:    Ralf Baechle <ralf@linux-mips.org>
 246
 247 ---------------------------
 248
 249 What:   Interrupt only SA_* flags
 250 When:   Januar 2007
 251 Why:    The interrupt related SA_* flags are replaced by IRQF_* to move them
 252         out of the signal namespace.
 253
 254 Who:    Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>
 255
 256 ---------------------------
 257
 258 What:   i2c-ite and i2c-algo-ite drivers
 259 When:   September 2006
 260 Why:    These drivers never compiled since they were added to the kernel
 261         tree 5 years ago. This feature removal can be reevaluated if
 262         someone shows interest in the drivers, fixes them and takes over
 263         maintenance.
 264         http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=linux-mips&m=115040510817448
 265 Who:    Jean Delvare <khali@linux-fr.org>
 266
 267 ---------------------------
 268
 269 What:   Bridge netfilter deferred IPv4/IPv6 output hook calling
 270 When:   January 2007
 271 Why:    The deferred output hooks are a layering violation causing unusual
 272         and broken behaviour on bridge devices. Examples of things they
 273         break include QoS classifation using the MARK or CLASSIFY targets,
 274         the IPsec policy match and connection tracking with VLANs on a
 275         bridge. Their only use is to enable bridge output port filtering
 276         within iptables with the physdev match, which can also be done by
 277         combining iptables and ebtables using netfilter marks. Until it
 278         will get removed the hook deferral is disabled by default and is
 279         only enabled when needed.
 280
 281 Who:    Patrick McHardy <kaber@trash.net>
 282
 283 ---------------------------