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 | |
Jiri Slaby | 9e40210 | 2007-05-08 00:36:28 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 9 | What: MXSER |
| 10 | When: December 2007 |
| 11 | Why: Old mxser driver is obsoleted by the mxser_new. Give it some time yet |
| 12 | and remove it. |
| 13 | Who: Jiri Slaby <jirislaby@gmail.com> |
| 14 | |
| 15 | --------------------------- |
| 16 | |
Alan Stern | 471d055 | 2007-07-12 16:55:07 -0400 | [diff] [blame] | 17 | What: dev->power.power_state |
Pavel Machek | 1ebfd79 | 2006-08-30 13:50:27 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 18 | When: July 2007 |
| 19 | Why: 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. |
| 26 | Who: Pavel Machek <pavel@suse.cz> |
| 27 | |
| 28 | --------------------------- |
| 29 | |
Christoph Hellwig | a6bcbc2 | 2007-04-30 00:05:48 +0200 | [diff] [blame] | 30 | What: old NCR53C9x driver |
| 31 | When: October 2007 |
| 32 | Why: Replaced by the much better esp_scsi driver. Actual low-level |
Christoph Hellwig | ed56047 | 2007-05-13 22:48:31 +0200 | [diff] [blame] | 33 | driver can be ported over almost trivially. |
Christoph Hellwig | a6bcbc2 | 2007-04-30 00:05:48 +0200 | [diff] [blame] | 34 | Who: David Miller <davem@davemloft.net> |
| 35 | Christoph Hellwig <hch@lst.de> |
| 36 | |
| 37 | --------------------------- |
| 38 | |
Mauro Carvalho Chehab | 875c296 | 2005-11-08 21:38:53 -0800 | [diff] [blame] | 39 | 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] | 40 | When: December 2008 |
| 41 | Files: include/linux/video_decoder.h include/linux/videodev.h |
| 42 | Check: include/linux/video_decoder.h include/linux/videodev.h |
| 43 | 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] | 44 | 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 Chehab | 11a5a10 | 2007-10-17 15:32:36 -0200 | [diff] [blame] | 52 | Compatibility ioctls will be provided, for a while, via |
| 53 | v4l1-compat module. |
| 54 | Who: Mauro Carvalho Chehab <mchehab@infradead.org> |
Mauro Carvalho Chehab | 875c296 | 2005-11-08 21:38:53 -0800 | [diff] [blame] | 55 | |
| 56 | --------------------------- |
| 57 | |
Dominik Brodowski | bf45d9b0 | 2005-07-07 17:58:58 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 58 | What: PCMCIA control ioctl (needed for pcmcia-cs [cardmgr, cardctl]) |
| 59 | When: November 2005 |
| 60 | Files: drivers/pcmcia/: pcmcia_ioctl.c |
| 61 | Why: 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/ |
| 71 | Who: Dominik Brodowski <linux@brodo.de> |
Harald Welte | 7af4cc3 | 2005-08-09 19:44:15 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 72 | |
| 73 | --------------------------- |
| 74 | |
Eric W. Biederman | 7058cb0 | 2007-10-18 03:05:58 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 75 | What: sys_sysctl |
| 76 | When: September 2010 |
| 77 | Option: CONFIG_SYSCTL_SYSCALL |
| 78 | Why: 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 | |
| 106 | Who: Eric Biederman <ebiederm@xmission.com> |
| 107 | |
| 108 | --------------------------- |
| 109 | |
Andi Kleen | 8e9073e | 2007-10-16 23:26:48 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 110 | What: a.out interpreter support for ELF executables |
| 111 | When: 2.6.25 |
| 112 | Files: fs/binfmt_elf.c |
| 113 | Why: 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. |
| 117 | Who: Andi Kleen <ak@suse.de> |
| 118 | |
| 119 | --------------------------- |
| 120 | |
Christoph Hellwig | ac51589 | 2006-03-24 03:18:22 -0800 | [diff] [blame] | 121 | What: remove EXPORT_SYMBOL(kernel_thread) |
| 122 | When: August 2006 |
| 123 | Files: arch/*/kernel/*_ksyms.c |
Andy Whitcroft | f0a594c | 2007-07-19 01:48:34 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 124 | Check: kernel_thread |
Christoph Hellwig | ac51589 | 2006-03-24 03:18:22 -0800 | [diff] [blame] | 125 | Why: 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 |
| 129 | Who: Christoph Hellwig <hch@lst.de> |
| 130 | |
| 131 | --------------------------- |
| 132 | |
Ingo Molnar | a9df3d0 | 2006-01-14 13:21:33 -0800 | [diff] [blame] | 133 | What: CONFIG_FORCED_INLINING |
| 134 | When: June 2006 |
| 135 | Why: 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. |
| 138 | Who: Arjan van de Ven |
| 139 | |
| 140 | --------------------------- |
| 141 | |
Bunk | c0d3c0c | 2006-02-07 01:43:31 -0500 | [diff] [blame] | 142 | What: eepro100 network driver |
| 143 | When: January 2007 |
| 144 | Why: replaced by the e100 driver |
| 145 | Who: Adrian Bunk <bunk@stusta.de> |
Jeff Garzik | 3c9b3a8 | 2006-02-07 01:47:12 -0500 | [diff] [blame] | 146 | |
| 147 | --------------------------- |
| 148 | |
Arjan van de Ven | f71d20e | 2006-06-28 04:26:45 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 149 | What: 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. |
| 152 | When: before 2.6.19 |
| 153 | Why: Unused symbols are both increasing the size of the kernel binary |
| 154 | and are often a sign of "wrong API" |
| 155 | Who: Arjan van de Ven <arjan@linux.intel.com> |
| 156 | |
| 157 | --------------------------- |
| 158 | |
Greg Kroah-Hartman | b87ba0a | 2006-03-20 13:17:13 -0800 | [diff] [blame] | 159 | What: USB driver API moves to EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL |
Matt LaPlante | a2ffd27 | 2006-10-03 22:49:15 +0200 | [diff] [blame] | 160 | When: February 2008 |
Greg Kroah-Hartman | b87ba0a | 2006-03-20 13:17:13 -0800 | [diff] [blame] | 161 | Files: include/linux/usb.h, drivers/usb/core/driver.c |
| 162 | Why: 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. |
| 171 | Who: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@suse.de> |
| 172 | |
| 173 | --------------------------- |
Nick Piggin | 93fac70 | 2006-03-31 02:29:56 -0800 | [diff] [blame] | 174 | |
Nick Piggin | 54cb882 | 2007-07-19 01:46:59 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 175 | What: vm_ops.nopage |
Nick Piggin | d0217ac | 2007-07-19 01:47:03 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 176 | When: Soon, provided in-kernel callers have been converted |
Nick Piggin | 54cb882 | 2007-07-19 01:46:59 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 177 | Why: 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. |
| 180 | Who: Nick Piggin <npiggin@suse.de> |
| 181 | |
| 182 | --------------------------- |
| 183 | |
Thomas Gleixner | 6e21361 | 2006-07-01 19:29:03 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 184 | What: Interrupt only SA_* flags |
Thomas Gleixner | 0e8638e | 2007-05-08 00:28:56 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 185 | When: September 2007 |
Thomas Gleixner | 6e21361 | 2006-07-01 19:29:03 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 186 | Why: The interrupt related SA_* flags are replaced by IRQF_* to move them |
| 187 | out of the signal namespace. |
| 188 | |
| 189 | Who: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de> |
| 190 | |
| 191 | --------------------------- |
Jean Delvare | 5a01748 | 2006-07-01 17:13:37 +0200 | [diff] [blame] | 192 | |
Kay Sievers | d81d9d6 | 2006-08-13 06:17:09 +0200 | [diff] [blame] | 193 | What: PHYSDEVPATH, PHYSDEVBUS, PHYSDEVDRIVER in the uevent environment |
Dominik Brodowski | acbd39f | 2006-09-30 22:41:43 -0400 | [diff] [blame] | 194 | When: October 2008 |
Kay Sievers | d81d9d6 | 2006-08-13 06:17:09 +0200 | [diff] [blame] | 195 | Why: 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. |
| 199 | Who: Kay Sievers <kay.sievers@suse.de> |
| 200 | |
| 201 | --------------------------- |
Jean Delvare | 6c805d2 | 2006-08-13 23:45:52 +0200 | [diff] [blame] | 202 | |
Jean Delvare | fccb56e | 2007-05-01 23:26:27 +0200 | [diff] [blame] | 203 | What: i2c_adapter.list |
David Brownell | b119dc3 | 2007-01-04 13:07:04 +0100 | [diff] [blame] | 204 | When: July 2007 |
Jean Delvare | fccb56e | 2007-05-01 23:26:27 +0200 | [diff] [blame] | 205 | Why: Superfluous, this list duplicates the one maintained by the driver |
| 206 | core. |
David Brownell | b119dc3 | 2007-01-04 13:07:04 +0100 | [diff] [blame] | 207 | Who: Jean Delvare <khali@linux-fr.org>, |
| 208 | David Brownell <dbrownell@users.sourceforge.net> |
| 209 | |
| 210 | --------------------------- |
| 211 | |
Zhang Rui | b981c59 | 2007-01-29 11:02:30 +0800 | [diff] [blame] | 212 | What: ACPI procfs interface |
Zhang Rui | 8b8eb7d | 2007-07-18 17:23:24 +0800 | [diff] [blame] | 213 | When: July 2008 |
| 214 | Why: 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 Rui | b981c59 | 2007-01-29 11:02:30 +0800 | [diff] [blame] | 217 | Who: Zhang Rui <rui.zhang@intel.com> |
| 218 | |
| 219 | --------------------------- |
| 220 | |
Len Brown | 1bb67c2 | 2007-01-11 01:49:44 -0500 | [diff] [blame] | 221 | What: /proc/acpi/button |
| 222 | When: August 2007 |
| 223 | Why: /proc/acpi/button has been replaced by events to the input layer |
| 224 | since 2.6.20. |
| 225 | Who: Len Brown <len.brown@intel.com> |
| 226 | |
| 227 | --------------------------- |
Jeff Garzik | 54b290a | 2007-01-23 00:29:01 -0500 | [diff] [blame] | 228 | |
Len Brown | 14e04fb | 2007-08-23 15:20:26 -0400 | [diff] [blame] | 229 | What: /proc/acpi/event |
| 230 | When: February 2008 |
| 231 | Why: /proc/acpi/event has been replaced by events via the input layer |
| 232 | and netlink since 2.6.23. |
| 233 | Who: Len Brown <len.brown@intel.com> |
| 234 | |
| 235 | --------------------------- |
| 236 | |
Jean Delvare | 11de70b | 2007-05-01 23:26:34 +0200 | [diff] [blame] | 237 | What: i2c-ixp2000, i2c-ixp4xx and scx200_i2c drivers |
| 238 | When: September 2007 |
| 239 | Why: Obsolete. The new i2c-gpio driver replaces all hardware-specific |
| 240 | I2C-over-GPIO drivers. |
| 241 | Who: Jean Delvare <khali@linux-fr.org> |
| 242 | |
| 243 | --------------------------- |
Adrian Bunk | 274ee1c | 2007-05-08 00:27:14 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 244 | |
Randy Dunlap | e84845c | 2007-07-15 23:40:25 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 245 | What: 'time' kernel boot parameter |
| 246 | When: January 2008 |
| 247 | Why: replaced by 'printk.time=<value>' so that printk timestamps can be |
| 248 | enabled or disabled as needed |
| 249 | Who: Randy Dunlap <randy.dunlap@oracle.com> |
| 250 | |
| 251 | --------------------------- |
| 252 | |
Adrian Bunk | 274ee1c | 2007-05-08 00:27:14 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 253 | What: drivers depending on OSS_OBSOLETE |
| 254 | When: options in 2.6.23, code in 2.6.25 |
| 255 | Why: obsolete OSS drivers |
| 256 | Who: Adrian Bunk <bunk@stusta.de> |
| 257 | |
| 258 | --------------------------- |
| 259 | |
Tejun Heo | d9aca22 | 2007-05-17 16:43:26 +0200 | [diff] [blame] | 260 | What: libata spindown skipping and warning |
Tejun Heo | 920a4b1 | 2007-05-04 21:28:48 +0200 | [diff] [blame] | 261 | When: Dec 2008 |
Tejun Heo | d9aca22 | 2007-05-17 16:43:26 +0200 | [diff] [blame] | 262 | Why: 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 Heo | 920a4b1 | 2007-05-04 21:28:48 +0200 | [diff] [blame] | 268 | Because issuing spin down command to an already spun down disk |
Tejun Heo | d9aca22 | 2007-05-17 16:43:26 +0200 | [diff] [blame] | 269 | 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 Heo | 920a4b1 | 2007-05-04 21:28:48 +0200 | [diff] [blame] | 274 | Who: Tejun Heo <htejun@gmail.com> |
| 275 | |
| 276 | --------------------------- |
| 277 | |
Jean Delvare | ba7fbb7 | 2007-07-12 14:12:29 +0200 | [diff] [blame] | 278 | What: Legacy RTC drivers (under drivers/i2c/chips) |
| 279 | When: November 2007 |
| 280 | Why: Obsolete. We have a RTC subsystem with better drivers. |
| 281 | Who: Jean Delvare <khali@linux-fr.org> |
| 282 | |
| 283 | --------------------------- |
| 284 | |
Patrick McHardy | 3569b62 | 2007-07-07 22:38:07 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 285 | What: iptables SAME target |
| 286 | When: 1.1. 2008 |
| 287 | Files: net/ipv4/netfilter/ipt_SAME.c, include/linux/netfilter_ipv4/ipt_SAME.h |
| 288 | Why: Obsolete for multiple years now, NAT core provides the same behaviour. |
| 289 | Unfixable broken wrt. 32/64 bit cleanness. |
| 290 | Who: Patrick McHardy <kaber@trash.net> |
| 291 | |
| 292 | --------------------------- |
Linus Torvalds | 489de30 | 2007-07-16 17:58:08 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 293 | |
Josh Boyer | 0b7dbfb | 2007-07-03 23:25:46 +1000 | [diff] [blame] | 294 | What: The arch/ppc and include/asm-ppc directories |
| 295 | When: Jun 2008 |
| 296 | Why: 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. |
| 303 | Who: linuxppc-dev@ozlabs.org |
| 304 | |
| 305 | --------------------------- |
Roland Dreier | f6be6fb | 2007-07-17 18:37:41 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 306 | |
| 307 | What: mthca driver's MSI support |
| 308 | When: January 2008 |
| 309 | Files: drivers/infiniband/hw/mthca/*.[ch] |
| 310 | Why: 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. |
| 313 | Who: Roland Dreier <rolandd@cisco.com> |
| 314 | |
| 315 | --------------------------- |
Stephen Hemminger | 5ad887f | 2007-09-15 19:35:14 -0400 | [diff] [blame] | 316 | |
| 317 | What: sk98lin network driver |
| 318 | When: Feburary 2008 |
| 319 | Why: In kernel tree version of driver is unmaintained. Sk98lin driver |
| 320 | replaced by the skge driver. |
| 321 | Who: Stephen Hemminger <shemminger@linux-foundation.org> |
| 322 | |
| 323 | --------------------------- |
Thomas Gleixner | 914d97f | 2007-10-11 11:20:05 +0200 | [diff] [blame] | 324 | |
| 325 | What: i386/x86_64 bzImage symlinks |
| 326 | When: April 2008 |
| 327 | |
| 328 | Why: 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. |
| 331 | Who: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de> |
Linus Torvalds | 038a500 | 2007-10-11 19:40:14 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 332 | |
| 333 | --------------------------- |
| 334 | |
Stephen Hemminger | 6f4fc42 | 2007-09-17 11:44:25 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 335 | What: shaper network driver |
| 336 | When: January 2008 |
| 337 | Files: drivers/net/shaper.c, include/linux/if_shaper.h |
| 338 | Why: 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. |
| 342 | Who: Stephen Hemminger <shemminger@linux-foundation.org> |
Linus Torvalds | 038a500 | 2007-10-11 19:40:14 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 343 | |
| 344 | --------------------------- |