blob: 6bb9be54ab767817557b680407edca2f582e03e9 [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
Alan Stern471d0552007-07-12 16:55:07 -040017What: dev->power.power_state
Pavel Machek1ebfd792006-08-30 13:50:27 -070018When: July 2007
19Why: Broken design for runtime control over driver power states, confusing
20 driver-internal runtime power management with: mechanisms to support
21 system-wide sleep state transitions; event codes that distinguish
22 different phases of swsusp "sleep" transitions; and userspace policy
23 inputs. This framework was never widely used, and most attempts to
24 use it were broken. Drivers should instead be exposing domain-specific
25 interfaces either to kernel or to userspace.
26Who: Pavel Machek <pavel@suse.cz>
27
28---------------------------
29
Christoph Hellwiga6bcbc22007-04-30 00:05:48 +020030What: old NCR53C9x driver
31When: October 2007
32Why: Replaced by the much better esp_scsi driver. Actual low-level
Christoph Hellwiged560472007-05-13 22:48:31 +020033 driver can be ported over almost trivially.
Christoph Hellwiga6bcbc22007-04-30 00:05:48 +020034Who: David Miller <davem@davemloft.net>
35 Christoph Hellwig <hch@lst.de>
36
37---------------------------
38
Mauro Carvalho Chehab875c2962005-11-08 21:38:53 -080039What: Video4Linux API 1 ioctls and video_decoder.h from Video devices.
Mauro Carvalho Chehab11a5a102007-10-17 15:32:36 -020040When: December 2008
41Files: include/linux/video_decoder.h include/linux/videodev.h
42Check: include/linux/video_decoder.h include/linux/videodev.h
43Why: V4L1 AP1 was replaced by V4L2 API during migration from 2.4 to 2.6
Mauro Carvalho Chehab875c2962005-11-08 21:38:53 -080044 series. The old API have lots of drawbacks and don't provide enough
45 means to work with all video and audio standards. The newer API is
46 already available on the main drivers and should be used instead.
47 Newer drivers should use v4l_compat_translate_ioctl function to handle
48 old calls, replacing to newer ones.
49 Decoder iocts are using internally to allow video drivers to
50 communicate with video decoders. This should also be improved to allow
51 V4L2 calls being translated into compatible internal ioctls.
Mauro Carvalho Chehab11a5a102007-10-17 15:32:36 -020052 Compatibility ioctls will be provided, for a while, via
53 v4l1-compat module.
54Who: Mauro Carvalho Chehab <mchehab@infradead.org>
Mauro Carvalho Chehab875c2962005-11-08 21:38:53 -080055
56---------------------------
57
Dominik Brodowskibf45d9b02005-07-07 17:58:58 -070058What: PCMCIA control ioctl (needed for pcmcia-cs [cardmgr, cardctl])
59When: November 2005
60Files: drivers/pcmcia/: pcmcia_ioctl.c
61Why: 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/
71Who: Dominik Brodowski <linux@brodo.de>
Harald Welte7af4cc32005-08-09 19:44:15 -070072
73---------------------------
74
Eric W. Biederman7058cb02007-10-18 03:05:58 -070075What: sys_sysctl
76When: September 2010
77Option: CONFIG_SYSCTL_SYSCALL
78Why: The same information is available in a more convenient from
79 /proc/sys, and none of the sysctl variables appear to be
80 important performance wise.
81
82 Binary sysctls are a long standing source of subtle kernel
83 bugs and security issues.
84
85 When I looked several months ago all I could find after
86 searching several distributions were 5 user space programs and
87 glibc (which falls back to /proc/sys) using this syscall.
88
89 The man page for sysctl(2) documents it as unusable for user
90 space programs.
91
92 sysctl(2) is not generally ABI compatible to a 32bit user
93 space application on a 64bit and a 32bit kernel.
94
95 For the last several months the policy has been no new binary
96 sysctls and no one has put forward an argument to use them.
97
98 Binary sysctls issues seem to keep happening appearing so
99 properly deprecating them (with a warning to user space) and a
100 2 year grace warning period will mean eventually we can kill
101 them and end the pain.
102
103 In the mean time individual binary sysctls can be dealt with
104 in a piecewise fashion.
105
106Who: Eric Biederman <ebiederm@xmission.com>
107
108---------------------------
109
Andi Kleen8e9073e2007-10-16 23:26:48 -0700110What: a.out interpreter support for ELF executables
111When: 2.6.25
112Files: fs/binfmt_elf.c
113Why: Using a.out interpreters for ELF executables was a feature for
114 transition from a.out to ELF. But now it is unlikely to be still
115 needed anymore and removing it would simplify the hairy ELF
116 loader code.
117Who: Andi Kleen <ak@suse.de>
118
119---------------------------
120
Christoph Hellwigac515892006-03-24 03:18:22 -0800121What: remove EXPORT_SYMBOL(kernel_thread)
122When: August 2006
123Files: arch/*/kernel/*_ksyms.c
Andy Whitcroftf0a594c2007-07-19 01:48:34 -0700124Check: kernel_thread
Christoph Hellwigac515892006-03-24 03:18:22 -0800125Why: kernel_thread is a low-level implementation detail. Drivers should
126 use the <linux/kthread.h> API instead which shields them from
127 implementation details and provides a higherlevel interface that
128 prevents bugs and code duplication
129Who: Christoph Hellwig <hch@lst.de>
130
131---------------------------
132
Ingo Molnara9df3d02006-01-14 13:21:33 -0800133What: CONFIG_FORCED_INLINING
134When: June 2006
135Why: Config option is there to see if gcc is good enough. (in january
136 2006). If it is, the behavior should just be the default. If it's not,
137 the option should just go away entirely.
138Who: Arjan van de Ven
139
140---------------------------
141
Bunkc0d3c0c2006-02-07 01:43:31 -0500142What: eepro100 network driver
143When: January 2007
144Why: replaced by the e100 driver
145Who: Adrian Bunk <bunk@stusta.de>
Jeff Garzik3c9b3a82006-02-07 01:47:12 -0500146
147---------------------------
148
Arjan van de Venf71d20e2006-06-28 04:26:45 -0700149What: Unused EXPORT_SYMBOL/EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL exports
150 (temporary transition config option provided until then)
151 The transition config option will also be removed at the same time.
152When: before 2.6.19
153Why: Unused symbols are both increasing the size of the kernel binary
154 and are often a sign of "wrong API"
155Who: Arjan van de Ven <arjan@linux.intel.com>
156
157---------------------------
158
Greg Kroah-Hartmanb87ba0a2006-03-20 13:17:13 -0800159What: USB driver API moves to EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL
Matt LaPlantea2ffd272006-10-03 22:49:15 +0200160When: February 2008
Greg Kroah-Hartmanb87ba0a2006-03-20 13:17:13 -0800161Files: include/linux/usb.h, drivers/usb/core/driver.c
162Why: The USB subsystem has changed a lot over time, and it has been
163 possible to create userspace USB drivers using usbfs/libusb/gadgetfs
164 that operate as fast as the USB bus allows. Because of this, the USB
165 subsystem will not be allowing closed source kernel drivers to
166 register with it, after this grace period is over. If anyone needs
167 any help in converting their closed source drivers over to use the
168 userspace filesystems, please contact the
169 linux-usb-devel@lists.sourceforge.net mailing list, and the developers
170 there will be glad to help you out.
171Who: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@suse.de>
172
173---------------------------
Nick Piggin93fac702006-03-31 02:29:56 -0800174
Nick Piggin54cb8822007-07-19 01:46:59 -0700175What: vm_ops.nopage
Nick Piggind0217ac2007-07-19 01:47:03 -0700176When: Soon, provided in-kernel callers have been converted
Nick Piggin54cb8822007-07-19 01:46:59 -0700177Why: This interface is replaced by vm_ops.fault, but it has been around
178 forever, is used by a lot of drivers, and doesn't cost much to
179 maintain.
180Who: Nick Piggin <npiggin@suse.de>
181
182---------------------------
183
Thomas Gleixner6e213612006-07-01 19:29:03 -0700184What: Interrupt only SA_* flags
Thomas Gleixner0e8638e2007-05-08 00:28:56 -0700185When: September 2007
Thomas Gleixner6e213612006-07-01 19:29:03 -0700186Why: The interrupt related SA_* flags are replaced by IRQF_* to move them
187 out of the signal namespace.
188
189Who: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>
190
191---------------------------
Jean Delvare5a017482006-07-01 17:13:37 +0200192
Kay Sieversd81d9d62006-08-13 06:17:09 +0200193What: PHYSDEVPATH, PHYSDEVBUS, PHYSDEVDRIVER in the uevent environment
Dominik Brodowskiacbd39f2006-09-30 22:41:43 -0400194When: October 2008
Kay Sieversd81d9d62006-08-13 06:17:09 +0200195Why: The stacking of class devices makes these values misleading and
196 inconsistent.
197 Class devices should not carry any of these properties, and bus
198 devices have SUBSYTEM and DRIVER as a replacement.
199Who: Kay Sievers <kay.sievers@suse.de>
200
201---------------------------
Jean Delvare6c805d22006-08-13 23:45:52 +0200202
Jean Delvarefccb56e2007-05-01 23:26:27 +0200203What: i2c_adapter.list
David Brownellb119dc32007-01-04 13:07:04 +0100204When: July 2007
Jean Delvarefccb56e2007-05-01 23:26:27 +0200205Why: Superfluous, this list duplicates the one maintained by the driver
206 core.
David Brownellb119dc32007-01-04 13:07:04 +0100207Who: Jean Delvare <khali@linux-fr.org>,
208 David Brownell <dbrownell@users.sourceforge.net>
209
210---------------------------
211
Zhang Ruib981c592007-01-29 11:02:30 +0800212What: ACPI procfs interface
Zhang Rui8b8eb7d2007-07-18 17:23:24 +0800213When: July 2008
214Why: ACPI sysfs conversion should be finished by January 2008.
215 ACPI procfs interface will be removed in July 2008 so that
216 there is enough time for the user space to catch up.
Zhang Ruib981c592007-01-29 11:02:30 +0800217Who: Zhang Rui <rui.zhang@intel.com>
218
219---------------------------
220
Len Brown1bb67c22007-01-11 01:49:44 -0500221What: /proc/acpi/button
222When: August 2007
223Why: /proc/acpi/button has been replaced by events to the input layer
224 since 2.6.20.
225Who: Len Brown <len.brown@intel.com>
226
227---------------------------
Jeff Garzik54b290a2007-01-23 00:29:01 -0500228
Len Brown14e04fb2007-08-23 15:20:26 -0400229What: /proc/acpi/event
230When: February 2008
231Why: /proc/acpi/event has been replaced by events via the input layer
232 and netlink since 2.6.23.
233Who: Len Brown <len.brown@intel.com>
234
235---------------------------
236
Jean Delvare11de70b2007-05-01 23:26:34 +0200237What: i2c-ixp2000, i2c-ixp4xx and scx200_i2c drivers
238When: September 2007
239Why: Obsolete. The new i2c-gpio driver replaces all hardware-specific
240 I2C-over-GPIO drivers.
241Who: Jean Delvare <khali@linux-fr.org>
242
243---------------------------
Adrian Bunk274ee1cd2007-05-08 00:27:14 -0700244
Randy Dunlape84845c2007-07-15 23:40:25 -0700245What: 'time' kernel boot parameter
246When: January 2008
247Why: replaced by 'printk.time=<value>' so that printk timestamps can be
248 enabled or disabled as needed
249Who: Randy Dunlap <randy.dunlap@oracle.com>
250
251---------------------------
252
Adrian Bunk274ee1cd2007-05-08 00:27:14 -0700253What: drivers depending on OSS_OBSOLETE
254When: options in 2.6.23, code in 2.6.25
255Why: obsolete OSS drivers
256Who: Adrian Bunk <bunk@stusta.de>
257
258---------------------------
259
Tejun Heod9aca222007-05-17 16:43:26 +0200260What: libata spindown skipping and warning
Tejun Heo920a4b12007-05-04 21:28:48 +0200261When: Dec 2008
Tejun Heod9aca222007-05-17 16:43:26 +0200262Why: Some halt(8) implementations synchronize caches for and spin
263 down libata disks because libata didn't use to spin down disk on
264 system halt (only synchronized caches).
265 Spin down on system halt is now implemented. sysfs node
266 /sys/class/scsi_disk/h:c:i:l/manage_start_stop is present if
267 spin down support is available.
Tejun Heo920a4b12007-05-04 21:28:48 +0200268 Because issuing spin down command to an already spun down disk
Tejun Heod9aca222007-05-17 16:43:26 +0200269 makes some disks spin up just to spin down again, libata tracks
270 device spindown status to skip the extra spindown command and
271 warn about it.
272 This is to give userspace tools the time to get updated and will
273 be removed after userspace is reasonably updated.
Tejun Heo920a4b12007-05-04 21:28:48 +0200274Who: Tejun Heo <htejun@gmail.com>
275
276---------------------------
277
Jean Delvareba7fbb72007-07-12 14:12:29 +0200278What: Legacy RTC drivers (under drivers/i2c/chips)
279When: November 2007
280Why: Obsolete. We have a RTC subsystem with better drivers.
281Who: Jean Delvare <khali@linux-fr.org>
282
283---------------------------
284
Patrick McHardy3569b622007-07-07 22:38:07 -0700285What: iptables SAME target
286When: 1.1. 2008
287Files: net/ipv4/netfilter/ipt_SAME.c, include/linux/netfilter_ipv4/ipt_SAME.h
288Why: Obsolete for multiple years now, NAT core provides the same behaviour.
289 Unfixable broken wrt. 32/64 bit cleanness.
290Who: Patrick McHardy <kaber@trash.net>
291
292---------------------------
Linus Torvalds489de302007-07-16 17:58:08 -0700293
Josh Boyer0b7dbfb2007-07-03 23:25:46 +1000294What: The arch/ppc and include/asm-ppc directories
295When: Jun 2008
296Why: The arch/powerpc tree is the merged architecture for ppc32 and ppc64
297 platforms. Currently there are efforts underway to port the remaining
298 arch/ppc platforms to the merged tree. New submissions to the arch/ppc
299 tree have been frozen with the 2.6.22 kernel release and that tree will
300 remain in bug-fix only mode until its scheduled removal. Platforms
301 that are not ported by June 2008 will be removed due to the lack of an
302 interested maintainer.
303Who: linuxppc-dev@ozlabs.org
304
305---------------------------
Roland Dreierf6be6fb2007-07-17 18:37:41 -0700306
307What: mthca driver's MSI support
308When: January 2008
309Files: drivers/infiniband/hw/mthca/*.[ch]
310Why: All mthca hardware also supports MSI-X, which provides
311 strictly more functionality than MSI. So there is no point in
312 having both MSI-X and MSI support in the driver.
313Who: Roland Dreier <rolandd@cisco.com>
314
315---------------------------
Stephen Hemminger5ad887f2007-09-15 19:35:14 -0400316
317What: sk98lin network driver
318When: Feburary 2008
319Why: In kernel tree version of driver is unmaintained. Sk98lin driver
320 replaced by the skge driver.
321Who: Stephen Hemminger <shemminger@linux-foundation.org>
322
323---------------------------
Thomas Gleixner914d97f2007-10-11 11:20:05 +0200324
325What: i386/x86_64 bzImage symlinks
326When: April 2008
327
328Why: The i386/x86_64 merge provides a symlink to the old bzImage
329 location so not yet updated user space tools, e.g. package
330 scripts, do not break.
331Who: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>
Linus Torvalds038a5002007-10-11 19:40:14 -0700332
333---------------------------
334
Stephen Hemminger6f4fc422007-09-17 11:44:25 -0700335What: shaper network driver
336When: January 2008
337Files: drivers/net/shaper.c, include/linux/if_shaper.h
338Why: This driver has been marked obsolete for many years.
339 It was only designed to work on lower speed links and has design
340 flaws that lead to machine crashes. The qdisc infrastructure in
341 2.4 or later kernels, provides richer features and is more robust.
342Who: Stephen Hemminger <shemminger@linux-foundation.org>
Linus Torvalds038a5002007-10-11 19:40:14 -0700343
344---------------------------