Linus Torvalds | 1da177e | 2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 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 | |
Luis R. Rodriguez | b2e1b30 | 2008-09-09 23:19:48 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 9 | What: old static regulatory information and ieee80211_regdom module parameter |
| 10 | When: 2.6.29 |
| 11 | Why: The old regulatory infrastructure has been replaced with a new one |
| 12 | which does not require statically defined regulatory domains. We do |
| 13 | not want to keep static regulatory domains in the kernel due to the |
| 14 | the dynamic nature of regulatory law and localization. We kept around |
| 15 | the old static definitions for the regulatory domains of: |
| 16 | * US |
| 17 | * JP |
| 18 | * EU |
| 19 | and used by default the US when CONFIG_WIRELESS_OLD_REGULATORY was |
| 20 | set. We also kept around the ieee80211_regdom module parameter in case |
| 21 | some applications were relying on it. Changing regulatory domains |
| 22 | can now be done instead by using nl80211, as is done with iw. |
| 23 | Who: Luis R. Rodriguez <lrodriguez@atheros.com> |
| 24 | |
| 25 | --------------------------- |
| 26 | |
Alan Stern | 471d055 | 2007-07-12 16:55:07 -0400 | [diff] [blame] | 27 | What: dev->power.power_state |
Pavel Machek | 1ebfd79 | 2006-08-30 13:50:27 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 28 | When: July 2007 |
| 29 | Why: Broken design for runtime control over driver power states, confusing |
| 30 | driver-internal runtime power management with: mechanisms to support |
| 31 | system-wide sleep state transitions; event codes that distinguish |
| 32 | different phases of swsusp "sleep" transitions; and userspace policy |
| 33 | inputs. This framework was never widely used, and most attempts to |
| 34 | use it were broken. Drivers should instead be exposing domain-specific |
| 35 | interfaces either to kernel or to userspace. |
| 36 | Who: Pavel Machek <pavel@suse.cz> |
| 37 | |
| 38 | --------------------------- |
| 39 | |
Mauro Carvalho Chehab | 875c296 | 2005-11-08 21:38:53 -0800 | [diff] [blame] | 40 | What: Video4Linux API 1 ioctls and video_decoder.h from Video devices. |
Mauro Carvalho Chehab | 11a5a10 | 2007-10-17 15:32:36 -0200 | [diff] [blame] | 41 | When: December 2008 |
| 42 | Files: include/linux/video_decoder.h include/linux/videodev.h |
| 43 | Check: include/linux/video_decoder.h include/linux/videodev.h |
| 44 | Why: V4L1 AP1 was replaced by V4L2 API during migration from 2.4 to 2.6 |
Mauro Carvalho Chehab | 875c296 | 2005-11-08 21:38:53 -0800 | [diff] [blame] | 45 | series. The old API have lots of drawbacks and don't provide enough |
| 46 | means to work with all video and audio standards. The newer API is |
| 47 | already available on the main drivers and should be used instead. |
| 48 | Newer drivers should use v4l_compat_translate_ioctl function to handle |
| 49 | old calls, replacing to newer ones. |
| 50 | Decoder iocts are using internally to allow video drivers to |
| 51 | communicate with video decoders. This should also be improved to allow |
| 52 | V4L2 calls being translated into compatible internal ioctls. |
Mauro Carvalho Chehab | 11a5a10 | 2007-10-17 15:32:36 -0200 | [diff] [blame] | 53 | Compatibility ioctls will be provided, for a while, via |
| 54 | v4l1-compat module. |
| 55 | Who: Mauro Carvalho Chehab <mchehab@infradead.org> |
Mauro Carvalho Chehab | 875c296 | 2005-11-08 21:38:53 -0800 | [diff] [blame] | 56 | |
| 57 | --------------------------- |
| 58 | |
Dominik Brodowski | bf45d9b0 | 2005-07-07 17:58:58 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 59 | What: PCMCIA control ioctl (needed for pcmcia-cs [cardmgr, cardctl]) |
| 60 | When: November 2005 |
| 61 | Files: drivers/pcmcia/: pcmcia_ioctl.c |
| 62 | Why: With the 16-bit PCMCIA subsystem now behaving (almost) like a |
| 63 | normal hotpluggable bus, and with it using the default kernel |
| 64 | infrastructure (hotplug, driver core, sysfs) keeping the PCMCIA |
| 65 | control ioctl needed by cardmgr and cardctl from pcmcia-cs is |
| 66 | unnecessary, and makes further cleanups and integration of the |
| 67 | PCMCIA subsystem into the Linux kernel device driver model more |
| 68 | difficult. The features provided by cardmgr and cardctl are either |
| 69 | handled by the kernel itself now or are available in the new |
| 70 | pcmciautils package available at |
| 71 | http://kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/pcmcia/ |
| 72 | Who: Dominik Brodowski <linux@brodo.de> |
Harald Welte | 7af4cc3 | 2005-08-09 19:44:15 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 73 | |
| 74 | --------------------------- |
| 75 | |
Eric W. Biederman | 7058cb0 | 2007-10-18 03:05:58 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 76 | What: sys_sysctl |
| 77 | When: September 2010 |
| 78 | Option: CONFIG_SYSCTL_SYSCALL |
| 79 | Why: The same information is available in a more convenient from |
| 80 | /proc/sys, and none of the sysctl variables appear to be |
| 81 | important performance wise. |
| 82 | |
| 83 | Binary sysctls are a long standing source of subtle kernel |
| 84 | bugs and security issues. |
| 85 | |
| 86 | When I looked several months ago all I could find after |
| 87 | searching several distributions were 5 user space programs and |
| 88 | glibc (which falls back to /proc/sys) using this syscall. |
| 89 | |
| 90 | The man page for sysctl(2) documents it as unusable for user |
| 91 | space programs. |
| 92 | |
| 93 | sysctl(2) is not generally ABI compatible to a 32bit user |
| 94 | space application on a 64bit and a 32bit kernel. |
| 95 | |
| 96 | For the last several months the policy has been no new binary |
| 97 | sysctls and no one has put forward an argument to use them. |
| 98 | |
| 99 | Binary sysctls issues seem to keep happening appearing so |
| 100 | properly deprecating them (with a warning to user space) and a |
| 101 | 2 year grace warning period will mean eventually we can kill |
| 102 | them and end the pain. |
| 103 | |
| 104 | In the mean time individual binary sysctls can be dealt with |
| 105 | in a piecewise fashion. |
| 106 | |
| 107 | Who: Eric Biederman <ebiederm@xmission.com> |
| 108 | |
| 109 | --------------------------- |
| 110 | |
Christoph Hellwig | ac51589 | 2006-03-24 03:18:22 -0800 | [diff] [blame] | 111 | What: remove EXPORT_SYMBOL(kernel_thread) |
| 112 | When: August 2006 |
| 113 | Files: arch/*/kernel/*_ksyms.c |
Andy Whitcroft | f0a594c | 2007-07-19 01:48:34 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 114 | Check: kernel_thread |
Christoph Hellwig | ac51589 | 2006-03-24 03:18:22 -0800 | [diff] [blame] | 115 | Why: kernel_thread is a low-level implementation detail. Drivers should |
| 116 | use the <linux/kthread.h> API instead which shields them from |
| 117 | implementation details and provides a higherlevel interface that |
| 118 | prevents bugs and code duplication |
| 119 | Who: Christoph Hellwig <hch@lst.de> |
| 120 | |
| 121 | --------------------------- |
| 122 | |
Arjan van de Ven | f71d20e | 2006-06-28 04:26:45 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 123 | What: Unused EXPORT_SYMBOL/EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL exports |
| 124 | (temporary transition config option provided until then) |
| 125 | The transition config option will also be removed at the same time. |
| 126 | When: before 2.6.19 |
| 127 | Why: Unused symbols are both increasing the size of the kernel binary |
| 128 | and are often a sign of "wrong API" |
| 129 | Who: Arjan van de Ven <arjan@linux.intel.com> |
| 130 | |
| 131 | --------------------------- |
| 132 | |
Kay Sievers | d81d9d6 | 2006-08-13 06:17:09 +0200 | [diff] [blame] | 133 | What: PHYSDEVPATH, PHYSDEVBUS, PHYSDEVDRIVER in the uevent environment |
Dominik Brodowski | acbd39f | 2006-09-30 22:41:43 -0400 | [diff] [blame] | 134 | When: October 2008 |
Kay Sievers | d81d9d6 | 2006-08-13 06:17:09 +0200 | [diff] [blame] | 135 | Why: The stacking of class devices makes these values misleading and |
| 136 | inconsistent. |
| 137 | Class devices should not carry any of these properties, and bus |
| 138 | devices have SUBSYTEM and DRIVER as a replacement. |
| 139 | Who: Kay Sievers <kay.sievers@suse.de> |
| 140 | |
| 141 | --------------------------- |
Jean Delvare | 6c805d2 | 2006-08-13 23:45:52 +0200 | [diff] [blame] | 142 | |
Zhang Rui | b981c59 | 2007-01-29 11:02:30 +0800 | [diff] [blame] | 143 | What: ACPI procfs interface |
Zhang Rui | 8b8eb7d | 2007-07-18 17:23:24 +0800 | [diff] [blame] | 144 | When: July 2008 |
| 145 | Why: ACPI sysfs conversion should be finished by January 2008. |
| 146 | ACPI procfs interface will be removed in July 2008 so that |
| 147 | there is enough time for the user space to catch up. |
Zhang Rui | b981c59 | 2007-01-29 11:02:30 +0800 | [diff] [blame] | 148 | Who: Zhang Rui <rui.zhang@intel.com> |
| 149 | |
| 150 | --------------------------- |
| 151 | |
Len Brown | 1bb67c2 | 2007-01-11 01:49:44 -0500 | [diff] [blame] | 152 | What: /proc/acpi/button |
| 153 | When: August 2007 |
| 154 | Why: /proc/acpi/button has been replaced by events to the input layer |
| 155 | since 2.6.20. |
| 156 | Who: Len Brown <len.brown@intel.com> |
| 157 | |
| 158 | --------------------------- |
Jeff Garzik | 54b290a | 2007-01-23 00:29:01 -0500 | [diff] [blame] | 159 | |
Len Brown | 14e04fb | 2007-08-23 15:20:26 -0400 | [diff] [blame] | 160 | What: /proc/acpi/event |
| 161 | When: February 2008 |
| 162 | Why: /proc/acpi/event has been replaced by events via the input layer |
| 163 | and netlink since 2.6.23. |
| 164 | Who: Len Brown <len.brown@intel.com> |
| 165 | |
| 166 | --------------------------- |
| 167 | |
Tejun Heo | d9aca22 | 2007-05-17 16:43:26 +0200 | [diff] [blame] | 168 | What: libata spindown skipping and warning |
Tejun Heo | 920a4b1 | 2007-05-04 21:28:48 +0200 | [diff] [blame] | 169 | When: Dec 2008 |
Tejun Heo | d9aca22 | 2007-05-17 16:43:26 +0200 | [diff] [blame] | 170 | Why: Some halt(8) implementations synchronize caches for and spin |
| 171 | down libata disks because libata didn't use to spin down disk on |
| 172 | system halt (only synchronized caches). |
| 173 | Spin down on system halt is now implemented. sysfs node |
| 174 | /sys/class/scsi_disk/h:c:i:l/manage_start_stop is present if |
| 175 | spin down support is available. |
Tejun Heo | 920a4b1 | 2007-05-04 21:28:48 +0200 | [diff] [blame] | 176 | Because issuing spin down command to an already spun down disk |
Tejun Heo | d9aca22 | 2007-05-17 16:43:26 +0200 | [diff] [blame] | 177 | makes some disks spin up just to spin down again, libata tracks |
| 178 | device spindown status to skip the extra spindown command and |
| 179 | warn about it. |
| 180 | This is to give userspace tools the time to get updated and will |
| 181 | be removed after userspace is reasonably updated. |
Tejun Heo | 920a4b1 | 2007-05-04 21:28:48 +0200 | [diff] [blame] | 182 | Who: Tejun Heo <htejun@gmail.com> |
| 183 | |
| 184 | --------------------------- |
| 185 | |
Thomas Gleixner | 914d97f | 2007-10-11 11:20:05 +0200 | [diff] [blame] | 186 | What: i386/x86_64 bzImage symlinks |
Ingo Molnar | 19b4e7f | 2008-04-10 10:12:27 +0200 | [diff] [blame] | 187 | When: April 2010 |
Thomas Gleixner | 914d97f | 2007-10-11 11:20:05 +0200 | [diff] [blame] | 188 | |
| 189 | Why: The i386/x86_64 merge provides a symlink to the old bzImage |
| 190 | location so not yet updated user space tools, e.g. package |
| 191 | scripts, do not break. |
| 192 | Who: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de> |
Linus Torvalds | 038a500 | 2007-10-11 19:40:14 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 193 | |
| 194 | --------------------------- |
| 195 | |
Jan Engelhardt | f9ef8a2 | 2008-01-14 23:43:34 -0800 | [diff] [blame] | 196 | What (Why): |
| 197 | - include/linux/netfilter_ipv4/ipt_TOS.h ipt_tos.h header files |
| 198 | (superseded by xt_TOS/xt_tos target & match) |
| 199 | |
| 200 | - "forwarding" header files like ipt_mac.h in |
| 201 | include/linux/netfilter_ipv4/ and include/linux/netfilter_ipv6/ |
| 202 | |
| 203 | - xt_CONNMARK match revision 0 |
| 204 | (superseded by xt_CONNMARK match revision 1) |
| 205 | |
| 206 | - xt_MARK target revisions 0 and 1 |
| 207 | (superseded by xt_MARK match revision 2) |
| 208 | |
| 209 | - xt_connmark match revision 0 |
| 210 | (superseded by xt_connmark match revision 1) |
| 211 | |
| 212 | - xt_conntrack match revision 0 |
| 213 | (superseded by xt_conntrack match revision 1) |
| 214 | |
| 215 | - xt_iprange match revision 0, |
| 216 | include/linux/netfilter_ipv4/ipt_iprange.h |
| 217 | (superseded by xt_iprange match revision 1) |
| 218 | |
| 219 | - xt_mark match revision 0 |
| 220 | (superseded by xt_mark match revision 1) |
| 221 | |
Jan Engelhardt | 079aa88 | 2008-10-08 11:35:00 +0200 | [diff] [blame] | 222 | - xt_recent: the old ipt_recent proc dir |
| 223 | (superseded by /proc/net/xt_recent) |
| 224 | |
Jan Engelhardt | f9ef8a2 | 2008-01-14 23:43:34 -0800 | [diff] [blame] | 225 | When: January 2009 or Linux 2.7.0, whichever comes first |
| 226 | Why: Superseded by newer revisions or modules |
| 227 | Who: Jan Engelhardt <jengelh@computergmbh.de> |
Michael Buesch | eb189d8 | 2008-01-28 14:47:41 -0800 | [diff] [blame] | 228 | |
| 229 | --------------------------- |
| 230 | |
| 231 | What: b43 support for firmware revision < 410 |
| 232 | When: July 2008 |
| 233 | Why: The support code for the old firmware hurts code readability/maintainability |
| 234 | and slightly hurts runtime performance. Bugfixes for the old firmware |
| 235 | are not provided by Broadcom anymore. |
| 236 | Who: Michael Buesch <mb@bu3sch.de> |
David S. Miller | e88bb41 | 2008-02-09 23:08:53 -0800 | [diff] [blame] | 237 | |
| 238 | --------------------------- |
| 239 | |
Glauber Costa | fae9a0d | 2008-04-08 13:20:56 -0300 | [diff] [blame] | 240 | What: usedac i386 kernel parameter |
| 241 | When: 2.6.27 |
| 242 | Why: replaced by allowdac and no dac combination |
| 243 | Who: Glauber Costa <gcosta@redhat.com> |
| 244 | |
Mark Fasheh | 52f7c21 | 2008-01-29 17:08:26 -0800 | [diff] [blame] | 245 | --------------------------- |
| 246 | |
Jiri Slaby | 02ae9a1 | 2008-05-16 11:49:22 +0200 | [diff] [blame] | 247 | What: remove HID compat support |
| 248 | When: 2.6.29 |
| 249 | Why: needed only as a temporary solution until distros fix themselves up |
| 250 | Who: Jiri Slaby <jirislaby@gmail.com> |
| 251 | |
| 252 | --------------------------- |
| 253 | |
Bjorn Helgaas | c80cfb0 | 2008-10-15 22:01:35 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 254 | What: print_fn_descriptor_symbol() |
| 255 | When: October 2009 |
| 256 | Why: The %pF vsprintf format provides the same functionality in a |
| 257 | simpler way. print_fn_descriptor_symbol() is deprecated but |
| 258 | still present to give out-of-tree modules time to change. |
| 259 | Who: Bjorn Helgaas <bjorn.helgaas@hp.com> |
| 260 | |
| 261 | --------------------------- |
| 262 | |
Mark Fasheh | 52f7c21 | 2008-01-29 17:08:26 -0800 | [diff] [blame] | 263 | What: /sys/o2cb symlink |
| 264 | When: January 2010 |
| 265 | Why: /sys/fs/o2cb is the proper location for this information - /sys/o2cb |
| 266 | exists as a symlink for backwards compatibility for old versions of |
| 267 | ocfs2-tools. 2 years should be sufficient time to phase in new versions |
| 268 | which know to look in /sys/fs/o2cb. |
| 269 | Who: ocfs2-devel@oss.oracle.com |
Matthew Wilcox | d2f5e80 | 2008-04-19 13:49:34 -0400 | [diff] [blame] | 270 | |
| 271 | --------------------------- |
| 272 | |
Vlad Yasevich | ecbed6a | 2008-07-01 20:06:22 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 273 | What: SCTP_GET_PEER_ADDRS_NUM_OLD, SCTP_GET_PEER_ADDRS_OLD, |
| 274 | SCTP_GET_LOCAL_ADDRS_NUM_OLD, SCTP_GET_LOCAL_ADDRS_OLD |
| 275 | When: June 2009 |
| 276 | Why: A newer version of the options have been introduced in 2005 that |
| 277 | removes the limitions of the old API. The sctp library has been |
| 278 | converted to use these new options at the same time. Any user |
| 279 | space app that directly uses the old options should convert to using |
| 280 | the new options. |
| 281 | Who: Vlad Yasevich <vladislav.yasevich@hp.com> |
David S. Miller | ea2aca0 | 2008-07-05 23:08:07 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 282 | |
| 283 | --------------------------- |
| 284 | |
Rene Herman | 16d7523 | 2008-06-24 19:38:56 +0200 | [diff] [blame] | 285 | What: CONFIG_THERMAL_HWMON |
| 286 | When: January 2009 |
| 287 | Why: This option was introduced just to allow older lm-sensors userspace |
| 288 | to keep working over the upgrade to 2.6.26. At the scheduled time of |
| 289 | removal fixed lm-sensors (2.x or 3.x) should be readily available. |
| 290 | Who: Rene Herman <rene.herman@gmail.com> |
Johannes Berg | 22bb1be | 2008-07-10 11:16:47 +0200 | [diff] [blame] | 291 | |
| 292 | --------------------------- |
| 293 | |
| 294 | What: Code that is now under CONFIG_WIRELESS_EXT_SYSFS |
| 295 | (in net/core/net-sysfs.c) |
| 296 | When: After the only user (hal) has seen a release with the patches |
| 297 | for enough time, probably some time in 2010. |
| 298 | Why: Over 1K .text/.data size reduction, data is available in other |
| 299 | ways (ioctls) |
| 300 | Who: Johannes Berg <johannes@sipsolutions.net> |
Krzysztof Piotr Oledzki | 5840157 | 2008-07-21 10:01:34 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 301 | |
| 302 | --------------------------- |
| 303 | |
| 304 | What: CONFIG_NF_CT_ACCT |
| 305 | When: 2.6.29 |
| 306 | Why: Accounting can now be enabled/disabled without kernel recompilation. |
| 307 | Currently used only to set a default value for a feature that is also |
| 308 | controlled by a kernel/module/sysfs/sysctl parameter. |
| 309 | Who: Krzysztof Piotr Oledzki <ole@ans.pl> |
| 310 | |
FUJITA Tomonori | 46dfa04 | 2008-09-10 22:22:34 +0200 | [diff] [blame] | 311 | --------------------------- |
| 312 | |
Jean Delvare | 00155a9 | 2008-10-22 20:21:32 +0200 | [diff] [blame] | 313 | What: i2c_attach_client(), i2c_detach_client(), i2c_driver->detach_client() |
| 314 | When: 2.6.29 (ideally) or 2.6.30 (more likely) |
| 315 | Why: Deprecated by the new (standard) device driver binding model. Use |
| 316 | i2c_driver->probe() and ->remove() instead. |
| 317 | Who: Jean Delvare <khali@linux-fr.org> |
Paul Moore | 277d342 | 2008-12-31 12:54:11 -0500 | [diff] [blame] | 318 | |
| 319 | --------------------------- |
| 320 | |
Hans de Goede | 0589c2d | 2009-01-07 16:37:33 +0100 | [diff] [blame^] | 321 | What: fscher and fscpos drivers |
| 322 | When: June 2009 |
| 323 | Why: Deprecated by the new fschmd driver. |
| 324 | Who: Hans de Goede <hdegoede@redhat.com> |
| 325 | Jean Delvare <khali@linux-fr.org> |
| 326 | |
| 327 | --------------------------- |
| 328 | |
Paul Moore | 277d342 | 2008-12-31 12:54:11 -0500 | [diff] [blame] | 329 | What: SELinux "compat_net" functionality |
| 330 | When: 2.6.30 at the earliest |
| 331 | Why: In 2.6.18 the Secmark concept was introduced to replace the "compat_net" |
| 332 | network access control functionality of SELinux. Secmark offers both |
| 333 | better performance and greater flexibility than the "compat_net" |
| 334 | mechanism. Now that the major Linux distributions have moved to |
| 335 | Secmark, it is time to deprecate the older mechanism and start the |
| 336 | process of removing the old code. |
| 337 | Who: Paul Moore <paul.moore@hp.com> |