blob: 1cbbb8e28999fc0cc8d980700b2bc3e772790d5e [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
Adrian Bunk98e7f292005-06-25 14:59:37 -07009What: RAW driver (CONFIG_RAW_DRIVER)
10When: December 2005
11Why: declared obsolete since kernel 2.6.3
12 O_DIRECT can be used instead
13Who: Adrian Bunk <bunk@stusta.de>
14
15---------------------------
16
Adrian Bunkaafda4e2006-04-20 02:43:21 -070017What: drivers that were depending on OBSOLETE_OSS_DRIVER
18 (config options already removed)
19When: before 2.6.19
Adrian Bunkcecd1ca2005-11-08 21:34:45 -080020Why: OSS drivers with ALSA replacements
21Who: Adrian Bunk <bunk@stusta.de>
22
23---------------------------
24
Jody McIntyrea1446c72005-05-16 21:53:59 -070025What: raw1394: requests of type RAW1394_REQ_ISO_SEND, RAW1394_REQ_ISO_LISTEN
Ben Collinsd0aef392006-06-12 18:14:27 -040026When: November 2006
Jody McIntyrea1446c72005-05-16 21:53:59 -070027Why: 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.
Ben Collinsd0aef392006-06-12 18:14:27 -040030Who: Jody McIntyre <scjody@modernduck.com>
Grant Coady937df8d2005-05-12 11:59:29 +100031
32---------------------------
33
Stefan Richter24d3bf82006-05-15 22:04:59 +020034What: sbp2: module parameter "force_inquiry_hack"
35When: July 2006
36Why: Superceded by parameter "workarounds".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.
39Who: Stefan Richter <stefanr@s5r6.in-berlin.de>
40
41---------------------------
42
Mauro Carvalho Chehab875c2962005-11-08 21:38:53 -080043What: Video4Linux API 1 ioctls and video_decoder.h from Video devices.
44When: July 2006
45Why: 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.
54Who: Mauro Carvalho Chehab <mchehab@brturbo.com.br>
55
56---------------------------
57
Adrian Bunk24622ef2005-11-07 01:01:44 -080058What: remove EXPORT_SYMBOL(insert_resource)
59When: April 2006
60Files: kernel/resource.c
61Why: No modular usage in the kernel.
62Who: Adrian Bunk <bunk@stusta.de>
63
64---------------------------
65
Dominik Brodowskibf45d9b02005-07-07 17:58:58 -070066What: PCMCIA control ioctl (needed for pcmcia-cs [cardmgr, cardctl])
67When: November 2005
68Files: drivers/pcmcia/: pcmcia_ioctl.c
69Why: With the 16-bit PCMCIA subsystem now behaving (almost) like a
70 normal hotpluggable bus, and with it using the default kernel
71 infrastructure (hotplug, driver core, sysfs) keeping the PCMCIA
72 control ioctl needed by cardmgr and cardctl from pcmcia-cs is
73 unnecessary, and makes further cleanups and integration of the
74 PCMCIA subsystem into the Linux kernel device driver model more
75 difficult. The features provided by cardmgr and cardctl are either
76 handled by the kernel itself now or are available in the new
77 pcmciautils package available at
78 http://kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/pcmcia/
79Who: Dominik Brodowski <linux@brodo.de>
Harald Welte7af4cc32005-08-09 19:44:15 -070080
81---------------------------
82
83What: ip_queue and ip6_queue (old ipv4-only and ipv6-only netfilter queue)
84When: December 2005
85Why: This interface has been obsoleted by the new layer3-independent
86 "nfnetlink_queue". The Kernel interface is compatible, so the old
87 ip[6]tables "QUEUE" targets still work and will transparently handle
88 all packets into nfnetlink queue number 0. Userspace users will have
89 to link against API-compatible library on top of libnfnetlink_queue
90 instead of the current 'libipq'.
91Who: Harald Welte <laforge@netfilter.org>
Christoph Hellwig49705b72005-11-08 21:35:06 -080092
93---------------------------
94
Christoph Hellwigac515892006-03-24 03:18:22 -080095What: remove EXPORT_SYMBOL(kernel_thread)
96When: August 2006
97Files: arch/*/kernel/*_ksyms.c
98Why: kernel_thread is a low-level implementation detail. Drivers should
99 use the <linux/kthread.h> API instead which shields them from
100 implementation details and provides a higherlevel interface that
101 prevents bugs and code duplication
102Who: Christoph Hellwig <hch@lst.de>
103
104---------------------------
105
Ingo Molnara9df3d02006-01-14 13:21:33 -0800106What: CONFIG_FORCED_INLINING
107When: June 2006
108Why: Config option is there to see if gcc is good enough. (in january
109 2006). If it is, the behavior should just be the default. If it's not,
110 the option should just go away entirely.
111Who: Arjan van de Ven
112
113---------------------------
114
NeilBrowne8a00332005-11-15 00:09:11 -0800115What: START_ARRAY ioctl for md
116When: July 2006
117Files: drivers/md/md.c
118Why: Not reliable by design - can fail when most needed.
119 Alternatives exist
120Who: NeilBrown <neilb@suse.de>
Ralf Baechlee0c9b792005-11-08 22:36:48 +0000121
122---------------------------
123
Bunkc0d3c0c2006-02-07 01:43:31 -0500124What: eepro100 network driver
125When: January 2007
126Why: replaced by the e100 driver
127Who: Adrian Bunk <bunk@stusta.de>
Jeff Garzik3c9b3a82006-02-07 01:47:12 -0500128
129---------------------------
130
Richard Knutsson051d9892005-12-03 02:34:12 +0100131What: pci_module_init(driver)
132When: January 2007
133Why: Is replaced by pci_register_driver(pci_driver).
134Who: Richard Knutsson <ricknu-0@student.ltu.se> and Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@suse.de>
Jean Delvarec5e3fbf2006-01-18 22:39:48 +0100135
136---------------------------
137
Thomas Gleixner7d99b7d2006-03-25 03:06:35 -0800138What: Usage of invalid timevals in setitimer
139When: March 2007
140Why: POSIX requires to validate timevals in the setitimer call. This
141 was never done by Linux. The invalid (e.g. negative timevals) were
142 silently converted to more or less random timeouts and intervals.
143 Until the removal a per boot limited number of warnings is printed
144 and the timevals are sanitized.
145
146Who: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>
147
148---------------------------
149
Jean Delvarec5e3fbf2006-01-18 22:39:48 +0100150What: I2C interface of the it87 driver
151When: January 2007
152Why: The ISA interface is faster and should be always available. The I2C
153 probing is also known to cause trouble in at least one case (see
154 bug #5889.)
155Who: Jean Delvare <khali@linux-fr.org>
Greg Kroah-Hartmanfa675762006-02-22 09:39:02 -0800156
157---------------------------
158
Arjan van de Venf71d20e2006-06-28 04:26:45 -0700159What: Unused EXPORT_SYMBOL/EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL exports
160 (temporary transition config option provided until then)
161 The transition config option will also be removed at the same time.
162When: before 2.6.19
163Why: Unused symbols are both increasing the size of the kernel binary
164 and are often a sign of "wrong API"
165Who: Arjan van de Ven <arjan@linux.intel.com>
166
167---------------------------
168
Christoph Hellwigde62a972006-03-24 03:18:33 -0800169What: remove EXPORT_SYMBOL(tasklist_lock)
170When: August 2006
171Files: kernel/fork.c
172Why: tasklist_lock protects the kernel internal task list. Modules have
173 no business looking at it, and all instances in drivers have been due
174 to use of too-lowlevel APIs. Having this symbol exported prevents
175 moving to more scalable locking schemes for the task list.
176Who: Christoph Hellwig <hch@lst.de>
177
178---------------------------
179
Greg Kroah-Hartmanfa675762006-02-22 09:39:02 -0800180What: mount/umount uevents
181When: February 2007
182Why: These events are not correct, and do not properly let userspace know
183 when a file system has been mounted or unmounted. Userspace should
184 poll the /proc/mounts file instead to detect this properly.
185Who: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@suse.de>
Ralf Baechlecf028d12006-03-02 16:50:12 +0000186
187---------------------------
188
Greg Kroah-Hartmanb87ba0a2006-03-20 13:17:13 -0800189What: USB driver API moves to EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL
190When: Febuary 2008
191Files: include/linux/usb.h, drivers/usb/core/driver.c
192Why: The USB subsystem has changed a lot over time, and it has been
193 possible to create userspace USB drivers using usbfs/libusb/gadgetfs
194 that operate as fast as the USB bus allows. Because of this, the USB
195 subsystem will not be allowing closed source kernel drivers to
196 register with it, after this grace period is over. If anyone needs
197 any help in converting their closed source drivers over to use the
198 userspace filesystems, please contact the
199 linux-usb-devel@lists.sourceforge.net mailing list, and the developers
200 there will be glad to help you out.
201Who: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@suse.de>
202
203---------------------------
Nick Piggin93fac702006-03-31 02:29:56 -0800204
205What: find_trylock_page
206When: January 2007
207Why: The interface no longer has any callers left in the kernel. It
208 is an odd interface (compared with other find_*_page functions), in
209 that it does not take a refcount to the page, only the page lock.
210 It should be replaced with find_get_page or find_lock_page if possible.
211 This feature removal can be reevaluated if users of the interface
212 cannot cleanly use something else.
213Who: Nick Piggin <npiggin@suse.de>
214
215---------------------------
Ralf Baechle127fe6a2006-06-28 12:28:27 +0100216
217What: Support for the MIPS EV96100 evaluation board
218When: September 2006
219Why: Does no longer build since at least November 15, 2003, apparently
220 no userbase left.
221Who: Ralf Baechle <ralf@linux-mips.org>
222
223---------------------------
224
225What: Support for the Momentum / PMC-Sierra Jaguar ATX evaluation board
226When: September 2006
227Why: Does no longer build since quite some time, and was never popular,
228 due to the platform being replaced by successor models. Apparently
229 no user base left. It also is one of the last users of
230 WANT_PAGE_VIRTUAL.
231Who: Ralf Baechle <ralf@linux-mips.org>
232
233---------------------------
234
235What: Support for the Momentum Ocelot, Ocelot 3, Ocelot C and Ocelot G
236When: September 2006
237Why: Some do no longer build and apparently there is no user base left
238 for these platforms.
239Who: Ralf Baechle <ralf@linux-mips.org>
240
241---------------------------
242
243What: Support for MIPS Technologies' Altas and SEAD evaluation board
244When: September 2006
245Why: Some do no longer build and apparently there is no user base left
246 for these platforms. Hardware out of production since several years.
247Who: Ralf Baechle <ralf@linux-mips.org>
248
249---------------------------
250
251What: Support for the IT8172-based platforms, ITE 8172G and Globespan IVR
252When: September 2006
253Why: Code does no longer build since at least 2.6.0, apparently there is
254 no user base left for these platforms. Hardware out of production
255 since several years and hardly a trace of the manufacturer left on
256 the net.
257Who: Ralf Baechle <ralf@linux-mips.org>
258
259---------------------------