blob: 280ec06573e659314a4ddcb4e0b17511e8208ea6 [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
Jiri Slaby9e402102007-05-08 00:36:28 -07009What: MXSER
10When: December 2007
11Why: Old mxser driver is obsoleted by the mxser_new. Give it some time yet
12 and remove it.
13Who: Jiri Slaby <jirislaby@gmail.com>
14
15---------------------------
16
Hans Verkuil3f3f6a52007-03-10 08:10:11 -030017What: V4L2 VIDIOC_G_MPEGCOMP and VIDIOC_S_MPEGCOMP
18When: October 2007
19Why: Broken attempt to set MPEG compression parameters. These ioctls are
20 not able to implement the wide variety of parameters that can be set
21 by hardware MPEG encoders. A new MPEG control mechanism was created
22 in kernel 2.6.18 that replaces these ioctls. See the V4L2 specification
23 (section 1.9: Extended controls) for more information on this topic.
24Who: Hans Verkuil <hverkuil@xs4all.nl> and
25 Mauro Carvalho Chehab <mchehab@infradead.org>
26
27---------------------------
28
Alan Stern471d0552007-07-12 16:55:07 -040029What: dev->power.power_state
Pavel Machek1ebfd792006-08-30 13:50:27 -070030When: July 2007
31Why: Broken design for runtime control over driver power states, confusing
32 driver-internal runtime power management with: mechanisms to support
33 system-wide sleep state transitions; event codes that distinguish
34 different phases of swsusp "sleep" transitions; and userspace policy
35 inputs. This framework was never widely used, and most attempts to
36 use it were broken. Drivers should instead be exposing domain-specific
37 interfaces either to kernel or to userspace.
38Who: Pavel Machek <pavel@suse.cz>
39
40---------------------------
41
Christoph Hellwiga6bcbc22007-04-30 00:05:48 +020042What: old NCR53C9x driver
43When: October 2007
44Why: Replaced by the much better esp_scsi driver. Actual low-level
Christoph Hellwiged560472007-05-13 22:48:31 +020045 driver can be ported over almost trivially.
Christoph Hellwiga6bcbc22007-04-30 00:05:48 +020046Who: David Miller <davem@davemloft.net>
47 Christoph Hellwig <hch@lst.de>
48
49---------------------------
50
Mauro Carvalho Chehab875c2962005-11-08 21:38:53 -080051What: Video4Linux API 1 ioctls and video_decoder.h from Video devices.
Mauro Carvalho Chehab48c06d52006-09-06 09:29:00 -030052When: December 2006
Andy Whitcroft0a920b52007-06-01 00:46:48 -070053Files: include/linux/video_decoder.h
Andy Whitcroftf0a594c2007-07-19 01:48:34 -070054Check: include/linux/video_decoder.h
Mauro Carvalho Chehab875c2962005-11-08 21:38:53 -080055Why: V4L1 AP1 was replaced by V4L2 API. during migration from 2.4 to 2.6
56 series. The old API have lots of drawbacks and don't provide enough
57 means to work with all video and audio standards. The newer API is
58 already available on the main drivers and should be used instead.
59 Newer drivers should use v4l_compat_translate_ioctl function to handle
60 old calls, replacing to newer ones.
61 Decoder iocts are using internally to allow video drivers to
62 communicate with video decoders. This should also be improved to allow
63 V4L2 calls being translated into compatible internal ioctls.
64Who: Mauro Carvalho Chehab <mchehab@brturbo.com.br>
65
66---------------------------
67
Dominik Brodowskibf45d9b02005-07-07 17:58:58 -070068What: PCMCIA control ioctl (needed for pcmcia-cs [cardmgr, cardctl])
69When: November 2005
70Files: drivers/pcmcia/: pcmcia_ioctl.c
71Why: With the 16-bit PCMCIA subsystem now behaving (almost) like a
72 normal hotpluggable bus, and with it using the default kernel
73 infrastructure (hotplug, driver core, sysfs) keeping the PCMCIA
74 control ioctl needed by cardmgr and cardctl from pcmcia-cs is
75 unnecessary, and makes further cleanups and integration of the
76 PCMCIA subsystem into the Linux kernel device driver model more
77 difficult. The features provided by cardmgr and cardctl are either
78 handled by the kernel itself now or are available in the new
79 pcmciautils package available at
80 http://kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/pcmcia/
81Who: Dominik Brodowski <linux@brodo.de>
Harald Welte7af4cc32005-08-09 19:44:15 -070082
83---------------------------
84
Andi Kleen8e9073e2007-10-16 23:26:48 -070085What: a.out interpreter support for ELF executables
86When: 2.6.25
87Files: fs/binfmt_elf.c
88Why: Using a.out interpreters for ELF executables was a feature for
89 transition from a.out to ELF. But now it is unlikely to be still
90 needed anymore and removing it would simplify the hairy ELF
91 loader code.
92Who: Andi Kleen <ak@suse.de>
93
94---------------------------
95
Christoph Hellwigac515892006-03-24 03:18:22 -080096What: remove EXPORT_SYMBOL(kernel_thread)
97When: August 2006
98Files: arch/*/kernel/*_ksyms.c
Andy Whitcroftf0a594c2007-07-19 01:48:34 -070099Check: kernel_thread
Christoph Hellwigac515892006-03-24 03:18:22 -0800100Why: kernel_thread is a low-level implementation detail. Drivers should
101 use the <linux/kthread.h> API instead which shields them from
102 implementation details and provides a higherlevel interface that
103 prevents bugs and code duplication
104Who: Christoph Hellwig <hch@lst.de>
105
106---------------------------
107
Ingo Molnara9df3d02006-01-14 13:21:33 -0800108What: CONFIG_FORCED_INLINING
109When: June 2006
110Why: Config option is there to see if gcc is good enough. (in january
111 2006). If it is, the behavior should just be the default. If it's not,
112 the option should just go away entirely.
113Who: Arjan van de Ven
114
115---------------------------
116
Bunkc0d3c0c2006-02-07 01:43:31 -0500117What: eepro100 network driver
118When: January 2007
119Why: replaced by the e100 driver
120Who: Adrian Bunk <bunk@stusta.de>
Jeff Garzik3c9b3a82006-02-07 01:47:12 -0500121
122---------------------------
123
Arjan van de Venf71d20e2006-06-28 04:26:45 -0700124What: Unused EXPORT_SYMBOL/EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL exports
125 (temporary transition config option provided until then)
126 The transition config option will also be removed at the same time.
127When: before 2.6.19
128Why: Unused symbols are both increasing the size of the kernel binary
129 and are often a sign of "wrong API"
130Who: Arjan van de Ven <arjan@linux.intel.com>
131
132---------------------------
133
Greg Kroah-Hartmanb87ba0a2006-03-20 13:17:13 -0800134What: USB driver API moves to EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL
Matt LaPlantea2ffd272006-10-03 22:49:15 +0200135When: February 2008
Greg Kroah-Hartmanb87ba0a2006-03-20 13:17:13 -0800136Files: include/linux/usb.h, drivers/usb/core/driver.c
137Why: The USB subsystem has changed a lot over time, and it has been
138 possible to create userspace USB drivers using usbfs/libusb/gadgetfs
139 that operate as fast as the USB bus allows. Because of this, the USB
140 subsystem will not be allowing closed source kernel drivers to
141 register with it, after this grace period is over. If anyone needs
142 any help in converting their closed source drivers over to use the
143 userspace filesystems, please contact the
144 linux-usb-devel@lists.sourceforge.net mailing list, and the developers
145 there will be glad to help you out.
146Who: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@suse.de>
147
148---------------------------
Nick Piggin93fac702006-03-31 02:29:56 -0800149
Nick Piggin54cb8822007-07-19 01:46:59 -0700150What: vm_ops.nopage
Nick Piggind0217ac2007-07-19 01:47:03 -0700151When: Soon, provided in-kernel callers have been converted
Nick Piggin54cb8822007-07-19 01:46:59 -0700152Why: This interface is replaced by vm_ops.fault, but it has been around
153 forever, is used by a lot of drivers, and doesn't cost much to
154 maintain.
155Who: Nick Piggin <npiggin@suse.de>
156
157---------------------------
158
Thomas Gleixner6e213612006-07-01 19:29:03 -0700159What: Interrupt only SA_* flags
Thomas Gleixner0e8638e2007-05-08 00:28:56 -0700160When: September 2007
Thomas Gleixner6e213612006-07-01 19:29:03 -0700161Why: The interrupt related SA_* flags are replaced by IRQF_* to move them
162 out of the signal namespace.
163
164Who: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>
165
166---------------------------
Jean Delvare5a017482006-07-01 17:13:37 +0200167
Kay Sieversd81d9d62006-08-13 06:17:09 +0200168What: PHYSDEVPATH, PHYSDEVBUS, PHYSDEVDRIVER in the uevent environment
Dominik Brodowskiacbd39f2006-09-30 22:41:43 -0400169When: October 2008
Kay Sieversd81d9d62006-08-13 06:17:09 +0200170Why: The stacking of class devices makes these values misleading and
171 inconsistent.
172 Class devices should not carry any of these properties, and bus
173 devices have SUBSYTEM and DRIVER as a replacement.
174Who: Kay Sievers <kay.sievers@suse.de>
175
176---------------------------
Jean Delvare6c805d22006-08-13 23:45:52 +0200177
Jean Delvarefccb56e2007-05-01 23:26:27 +0200178What: i2c_adapter.list
David Brownellb119dc32007-01-04 13:07:04 +0100179When: July 2007
Jean Delvarefccb56e2007-05-01 23:26:27 +0200180Why: Superfluous, this list duplicates the one maintained by the driver
181 core.
David Brownellb119dc32007-01-04 13:07:04 +0100182Who: Jean Delvare <khali@linux-fr.org>,
183 David Brownell <dbrownell@users.sourceforge.net>
184
185---------------------------
186
Adrian Bunk5aab0ad2007-02-10 01:45:50 -0800187What: drivers depending on OBSOLETE_OSS
188When: options in 2.6.22, code in 2.6.24
189Why: OSS drivers with ALSA replacements
190Who: Adrian Bunk <bunk@stusta.de>
191
192---------------------------
193
Zhang Ruib981c592007-01-29 11:02:30 +0800194What: ACPI procfs interface
Zhang Rui8b8eb7d2007-07-18 17:23:24 +0800195When: July 2008
196Why: ACPI sysfs conversion should be finished by January 2008.
197 ACPI procfs interface will be removed in July 2008 so that
198 there is enough time for the user space to catch up.
Zhang Ruib981c592007-01-29 11:02:30 +0800199Who: Zhang Rui <rui.zhang@intel.com>
200
201---------------------------
202
Len Brown1bb67c22007-01-11 01:49:44 -0500203What: /proc/acpi/button
204When: August 2007
205Why: /proc/acpi/button has been replaced by events to the input layer
206 since 2.6.20.
207Who: Len Brown <len.brown@intel.com>
208
209---------------------------
Jeff Garzik54b290a2007-01-23 00:29:01 -0500210
Len Brown14e04fb2007-08-23 15:20:26 -0400211What: /proc/acpi/event
212When: February 2008
213Why: /proc/acpi/event has been replaced by events via the input layer
214 and netlink since 2.6.23.
215Who: Len Brown <len.brown@intel.com>
216
217---------------------------
218
Jean Delvare11de70b2007-05-01 23:26:34 +0200219What: i2c-ixp2000, i2c-ixp4xx and scx200_i2c drivers
220When: September 2007
221Why: Obsolete. The new i2c-gpio driver replaces all hardware-specific
222 I2C-over-GPIO drivers.
223Who: Jean Delvare <khali@linux-fr.org>
224
225---------------------------
Adrian Bunk274ee1cd2007-05-08 00:27:14 -0700226
Randy Dunlape84845c2007-07-15 23:40:25 -0700227What: 'time' kernel boot parameter
228When: January 2008
229Why: replaced by 'printk.time=<value>' so that printk timestamps can be
230 enabled or disabled as needed
231Who: Randy Dunlap <randy.dunlap@oracle.com>
232
233---------------------------
234
Adrian Bunk274ee1cd2007-05-08 00:27:14 -0700235What: drivers depending on OSS_OBSOLETE
236When: options in 2.6.23, code in 2.6.25
237Why: obsolete OSS drivers
238Who: Adrian Bunk <bunk@stusta.de>
239
240---------------------------
241
Tejun Heod9aca222007-05-17 16:43:26 +0200242What: libata spindown skipping and warning
Tejun Heo920a4b12007-05-04 21:28:48 +0200243When: Dec 2008
Tejun Heod9aca222007-05-17 16:43:26 +0200244Why: Some halt(8) implementations synchronize caches for and spin
245 down libata disks because libata didn't use to spin down disk on
246 system halt (only synchronized caches).
247 Spin down on system halt is now implemented. sysfs node
248 /sys/class/scsi_disk/h:c:i:l/manage_start_stop is present if
249 spin down support is available.
Tejun Heo920a4b12007-05-04 21:28:48 +0200250 Because issuing spin down command to an already spun down disk
Tejun Heod9aca222007-05-17 16:43:26 +0200251 makes some disks spin up just to spin down again, libata tracks
252 device spindown status to skip the extra spindown command and
253 warn about it.
254 This is to give userspace tools the time to get updated and will
255 be removed after userspace is reasonably updated.
Tejun Heo920a4b12007-05-04 21:28:48 +0200256Who: Tejun Heo <htejun@gmail.com>
257
258---------------------------
259
Jean Delvareba7fbb72007-07-12 14:12:29 +0200260What: Legacy RTC drivers (under drivers/i2c/chips)
261When: November 2007
262Why: Obsolete. We have a RTC subsystem with better drivers.
263Who: Jean Delvare <khali@linux-fr.org>
264
265---------------------------
266
Patrick McHardy3569b622007-07-07 22:38:07 -0700267What: iptables SAME target
268When: 1.1. 2008
269Files: net/ipv4/netfilter/ipt_SAME.c, include/linux/netfilter_ipv4/ipt_SAME.h
270Why: Obsolete for multiple years now, NAT core provides the same behaviour.
271 Unfixable broken wrt. 32/64 bit cleanness.
272Who: Patrick McHardy <kaber@trash.net>
273
274---------------------------
Linus Torvalds489de302007-07-16 17:58:08 -0700275
Josh Boyer0b7dbfb2007-07-03 23:25:46 +1000276What: The arch/ppc and include/asm-ppc directories
277When: Jun 2008
278Why: The arch/powerpc tree is the merged architecture for ppc32 and ppc64
279 platforms. Currently there are efforts underway to port the remaining
280 arch/ppc platforms to the merged tree. New submissions to the arch/ppc
281 tree have been frozen with the 2.6.22 kernel release and that tree will
282 remain in bug-fix only mode until its scheduled removal. Platforms
283 that are not ported by June 2008 will be removed due to the lack of an
284 interested maintainer.
285Who: linuxppc-dev@ozlabs.org
286
287---------------------------
Roland Dreierf6be6fb2007-07-17 18:37:41 -0700288
289What: mthca driver's MSI support
290When: January 2008
291Files: drivers/infiniband/hw/mthca/*.[ch]
292Why: All mthca hardware also supports MSI-X, which provides
293 strictly more functionality than MSI. So there is no point in
294 having both MSI-X and MSI support in the driver.
295Who: Roland Dreier <rolandd@cisco.com>
296
297---------------------------
Stephen Hemminger5ad887f2007-09-15 19:35:14 -0400298
299What: sk98lin network driver
300When: Feburary 2008
301Why: In kernel tree version of driver is unmaintained. Sk98lin driver
302 replaced by the skge driver.
303Who: Stephen Hemminger <shemminger@linux-foundation.org>
304
305---------------------------
Thomas Gleixner914d97f2007-10-11 11:20:05 +0200306
307What: i386/x86_64 bzImage symlinks
308When: April 2008
309
310Why: The i386/x86_64 merge provides a symlink to the old bzImage
311 location so not yet updated user space tools, e.g. package
312 scripts, do not break.
313Who: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>
Linus Torvalds038a5002007-10-11 19:40:14 -0700314
315---------------------------
316
Stephen Hemminger6f4fc422007-09-17 11:44:25 -0700317What: shaper network driver
318When: January 2008
319Files: drivers/net/shaper.c, include/linux/if_shaper.h
320Why: This driver has been marked obsolete for many years.
321 It was only designed to work on lower speed links and has design
322 flaws that lead to machine crashes. The qdisc infrastructure in
323 2.4 or later kernels, provides richer features and is more robust.
324Who: Stephen Hemminger <shemminger@linux-foundation.org>
Linus Torvalds038a5002007-10-11 19:40:14 -0700325
326---------------------------