blob: 9474501dd6cc4db9b9b0833d5ef5455ff1e4b1e2 [file] [log] [blame]
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -07001The following is a list of files and features that are going to be
2removed in the kernel source tree. Every entry should contain what
3exactly is going away, why it is happening, and who is going to be doing
4the work. When the feature is removed from the kernel, it should also
5be removed from this file.
6
7---------------------------
8
9What: devfs
10When: July 2005
11Files: fs/devfs/*, include/linux/devfs_fs*.h and assorted devfs
12 function calls throughout the kernel tree
13Why: It has been unmaintained for a number of years, has unfixable
14 races, contains a naming policy within the kernel that is
15 against the LSB, and can be replaced by using udev.
16Who: Greg Kroah-Hartman <greg@kroah.com>
17
18---------------------------
19
Adrian Bunk98e7f292005-06-25 14:59:37 -070020What: RAW driver (CONFIG_RAW_DRIVER)
21When: December 2005
22Why: declared obsolete since kernel 2.6.3
23 O_DIRECT can be used instead
24Who: Adrian Bunk <bunk@stusta.de>
25
26---------------------------
27
Adrian Bunkcecd1ca2005-11-08 21:34:45 -080028What: drivers depending on OBSOLETE_OSS_DRIVER
29When: January 2006
30Why: OSS drivers with ALSA replacements
31Who: Adrian Bunk <bunk@stusta.de>
32
33---------------------------
34
Paul E. McKenney66cf8f12005-05-01 08:59:03 -070035What: RCU API moves to EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL
36When: April 2006
37Files: include/linux/rcupdate.h, kernel/rcupdate.c
38Why: Outside of Linux, the only implementations of anything even
39 vaguely resembling RCU that I am aware of are in DYNIX/ptx,
40 VM/XA, Tornado, and K42. I do not expect anyone to port binary
41 drivers or kernel modules from any of these, since the first two
42 are owned by IBM and the last two are open-source research OSes.
43 So these will move to GPL after a grace period to allow
44 people, who might be using implementations that I am not aware
45 of, to adjust to this upcoming change.
46Who: Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@us.ibm.com>
Jody McIntyrea1446c72005-05-16 21:53:59 -070047
48---------------------------
49
Jody McIntyrea1446c72005-05-16 21:53:59 -070050What: raw1394: requests of type RAW1394_REQ_ISO_SEND, RAW1394_REQ_ISO_LISTEN
51When: November 2005
52Why: Deprecated in favour of the new ioctl-based rawiso interface, which is
53 more efficient. You should really be using libraw1394 for raw1394
54 access anyway.
55Who: Jody McIntyre <scjody@steamballoon.com>
Grant Coady937df8d2005-05-12 11:59:29 +100056
57---------------------------
58
Mauro Carvalho Chehab875c2962005-11-08 21:38:53 -080059What: Video4Linux API 1 ioctls and video_decoder.h from Video devices.
60When: July 2006
61Why: V4L1 AP1 was replaced by V4L2 API. during migration from 2.4 to 2.6
62 series. The old API have lots of drawbacks and don't provide enough
63 means to work with all video and audio standards. The newer API is
64 already available on the main drivers and should be used instead.
65 Newer drivers should use v4l_compat_translate_ioctl function to handle
66 old calls, replacing to newer ones.
67 Decoder iocts are using internally to allow video drivers to
68 communicate with video decoders. This should also be improved to allow
69 V4L2 calls being translated into compatible internal ioctls.
70Who: Mauro Carvalho Chehab <mchehab@brturbo.com.br>
71
72---------------------------
73
Adrian Bunkdfed0442005-11-07 01:01:44 -080074What: remove EXPORT_SYMBOL(panic_timeout)
75When: April 2006
76Files: kernel/panic.c
77Why: No modular usage in the kernel.
78Who: Adrian Bunk <bunk@stusta.de>
79
80---------------------------
81
Adrian Bunk24622ef2005-11-07 01:01:44 -080082What: remove EXPORT_SYMBOL(insert_resource)
83When: April 2006
84Files: kernel/resource.c
85Why: No modular usage in the kernel.
86Who: Adrian Bunk <bunk@stusta.de>
87
88---------------------------
89
Dominik Brodowskibf45d9b02005-07-07 17:58:58 -070090What: PCMCIA control ioctl (needed for pcmcia-cs [cardmgr, cardctl])
91When: November 2005
92Files: drivers/pcmcia/: pcmcia_ioctl.c
93Why: With the 16-bit PCMCIA subsystem now behaving (almost) like a
94 normal hotpluggable bus, and with it using the default kernel
95 infrastructure (hotplug, driver core, sysfs) keeping the PCMCIA
96 control ioctl needed by cardmgr and cardctl from pcmcia-cs is
97 unnecessary, and makes further cleanups and integration of the
98 PCMCIA subsystem into the Linux kernel device driver model more
99 difficult. The features provided by cardmgr and cardctl are either
100 handled by the kernel itself now or are available in the new
101 pcmciautils package available at
102 http://kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/pcmcia/
103Who: Dominik Brodowski <linux@brodo.de>
Harald Welte7af4cc32005-08-09 19:44:15 -0700104
105---------------------------
106
107What: ip_queue and ip6_queue (old ipv4-only and ipv6-only netfilter queue)
108When: December 2005
109Why: This interface has been obsoleted by the new layer3-independent
110 "nfnetlink_queue". The Kernel interface is compatible, so the old
111 ip[6]tables "QUEUE" targets still work and will transparently handle
112 all packets into nfnetlink queue number 0. Userspace users will have
113 to link against API-compatible library on top of libnfnetlink_queue
114 instead of the current 'libipq'.
115Who: Harald Welte <laforge@netfilter.org>
Christoph Hellwig49705b72005-11-08 21:35:06 -0800116
117---------------------------
118
119What: EXPORT_SYMBOL(lookup_hash)
120When: January 2006
121Why: Too low-level interface. Use lookup_one_len or lookup_create instead.
122Who: Christoph Hellwig <hch@lst.de>
NeilBrowne8a00332005-11-15 00:09:11 -0800123
124---------------------------
125
126What: START_ARRAY ioctl for md
127When: July 2006
128Files: drivers/md/md.c
129Why: Not reliable by design - can fail when most needed.
130 Alternatives exist
131Who: NeilBrown <neilb@suse.de>
Ralf Baechlee0c9b792005-11-08 22:36:48 +0000132
133---------------------------
134
135What: au1x00_uart driver
136When: January 2006
137Why: The 8250 serial driver now has the ability to deal with the differences
138 between the standard 8250 family of UARTs and their slightly strange
139 brother on Alchemy SOCs. The loss of features is not considered an
140 issue.
141Who: Ralf Baechle <ralf@linux-mips.org>