blob: 64831def40abe9b17043af9726762b7c2de3e251 [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
Christoph Hellwigac515892006-03-24 03:18:22 -080085What: remove EXPORT_SYMBOL(kernel_thread)
86When: August 2006
87Files: arch/*/kernel/*_ksyms.c
Andy Whitcroftf0a594c2007-07-19 01:48:34 -070088Check: kernel_thread
Christoph Hellwigac515892006-03-24 03:18:22 -080089Why: kernel_thread is a low-level implementation detail. Drivers should
90 use the <linux/kthread.h> API instead which shields them from
91 implementation details and provides a higherlevel interface that
92 prevents bugs and code duplication
93Who: Christoph Hellwig <hch@lst.de>
94
95---------------------------
96
Ingo Molnara9df3d02006-01-14 13:21:33 -080097What: CONFIG_FORCED_INLINING
98When: June 2006
99Why: Config option is there to see if gcc is good enough. (in january
100 2006). If it is, the behavior should just be the default. If it's not,
101 the option should just go away entirely.
102Who: Arjan van de Ven
103
104---------------------------
105
Bunkc0d3c0c2006-02-07 01:43:31 -0500106What: eepro100 network driver
107When: January 2007
108Why: replaced by the e100 driver
109Who: Adrian Bunk <bunk@stusta.de>
Jeff Garzik3c9b3a82006-02-07 01:47:12 -0500110
111---------------------------
112
Arjan van de Venf71d20e2006-06-28 04:26:45 -0700113What: Unused EXPORT_SYMBOL/EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL exports
114 (temporary transition config option provided until then)
115 The transition config option will also be removed at the same time.
116When: before 2.6.19
117Why: Unused symbols are both increasing the size of the kernel binary
118 and are often a sign of "wrong API"
119Who: Arjan van de Ven <arjan@linux.intel.com>
120
121---------------------------
122
Greg Kroah-Hartmanb87ba0a2006-03-20 13:17:13 -0800123What: USB driver API moves to EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL
Matt LaPlantea2ffd272006-10-03 22:49:15 +0200124When: February 2008
Greg Kroah-Hartmanb87ba0a2006-03-20 13:17:13 -0800125Files: include/linux/usb.h, drivers/usb/core/driver.c
126Why: The USB subsystem has changed a lot over time, and it has been
127 possible to create userspace USB drivers using usbfs/libusb/gadgetfs
128 that operate as fast as the USB bus allows. Because of this, the USB
129 subsystem will not be allowing closed source kernel drivers to
130 register with it, after this grace period is over. If anyone needs
131 any help in converting their closed source drivers over to use the
132 userspace filesystems, please contact the
133 linux-usb-devel@lists.sourceforge.net mailing list, and the developers
134 there will be glad to help you out.
135Who: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@suse.de>
136
137---------------------------
Nick Piggin93fac702006-03-31 02:29:56 -0800138
Nick Piggin54cb8822007-07-19 01:46:59 -0700139What: vm_ops.nopage
Nick Piggind0217ac2007-07-19 01:47:03 -0700140When: Soon, provided in-kernel callers have been converted
Nick Piggin54cb8822007-07-19 01:46:59 -0700141Why: This interface is replaced by vm_ops.fault, but it has been around
142 forever, is used by a lot of drivers, and doesn't cost much to
143 maintain.
144Who: Nick Piggin <npiggin@suse.de>
145
146---------------------------
147
Thomas Gleixner6e213612006-07-01 19:29:03 -0700148What: Interrupt only SA_* flags
Thomas Gleixner0e8638e2007-05-08 00:28:56 -0700149When: September 2007
Thomas Gleixner6e213612006-07-01 19:29:03 -0700150Why: The interrupt related SA_* flags are replaced by IRQF_* to move them
151 out of the signal namespace.
152
153Who: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>
154
155---------------------------
Jean Delvare5a017482006-07-01 17:13:37 +0200156
Kay Sieversd81d9d62006-08-13 06:17:09 +0200157What: PHYSDEVPATH, PHYSDEVBUS, PHYSDEVDRIVER in the uevent environment
Dominik Brodowskiacbd39f2006-09-30 22:41:43 -0400158When: October 2008
Kay Sieversd81d9d62006-08-13 06:17:09 +0200159Why: The stacking of class devices makes these values misleading and
160 inconsistent.
161 Class devices should not carry any of these properties, and bus
162 devices have SUBSYTEM and DRIVER as a replacement.
163Who: Kay Sievers <kay.sievers@suse.de>
164
165---------------------------
Jean Delvare6c805d22006-08-13 23:45:52 +0200166
Jean Delvarefccb56e2007-05-01 23:26:27 +0200167What: i2c_adapter.list
David Brownellb119dc32007-01-04 13:07:04 +0100168When: July 2007
Jean Delvarefccb56e2007-05-01 23:26:27 +0200169Why: Superfluous, this list duplicates the one maintained by the driver
170 core.
David Brownellb119dc32007-01-04 13:07:04 +0100171Who: Jean Delvare <khali@linux-fr.org>,
172 David Brownell <dbrownell@users.sourceforge.net>
173
174---------------------------
175
Adrian Bunk5aab0ad2007-02-10 01:45:50 -0800176What: drivers depending on OBSOLETE_OSS
177When: options in 2.6.22, code in 2.6.24
178Why: OSS drivers with ALSA replacements
179Who: Adrian Bunk <bunk@stusta.de>
180
181---------------------------
182
Zhang Ruib981c592007-01-29 11:02:30 +0800183What: ACPI procfs interface
Zhang Rui8b8eb7d2007-07-18 17:23:24 +0800184When: July 2008
185Why: ACPI sysfs conversion should be finished by January 2008.
186 ACPI procfs interface will be removed in July 2008 so that
187 there is enough time for the user space to catch up.
Zhang Ruib981c592007-01-29 11:02:30 +0800188Who: Zhang Rui <rui.zhang@intel.com>
189
190---------------------------
191
Len Brown1bb67c22007-01-11 01:49:44 -0500192What: /proc/acpi/button
193When: August 2007
194Why: /proc/acpi/button has been replaced by events to the input layer
195 since 2.6.20.
196Who: Len Brown <len.brown@intel.com>
197
198---------------------------
Jeff Garzik54b290a2007-01-23 00:29:01 -0500199
Len Brown14e04fb2007-08-23 15:20:26 -0400200What: /proc/acpi/event
201When: February 2008
202Why: /proc/acpi/event has been replaced by events via the input layer
203 and netlink since 2.6.23.
204Who: Len Brown <len.brown@intel.com>
205
206---------------------------
207
Richard Purdieff141a02007-02-10 01:29:11 -0500208What: Compaq touchscreen device emulation
209When: Oct 2007
210Files: drivers/input/tsdev.c
211Why: The code says it was obsolete when it was written in 2001.
212 tslib is a userspace library which does anything tsdev can do and
213 much more besides in userspace where this code belongs. There is no
214 longer any need for tsdev and applications should have converted to
215 use tslib by now.
216 The name "tsdev" is also extremely confusing and lots of people have
217 it loaded when they don't need/use it.
218Who: Richard Purdie <rpurdie@rpsys.net>
219
220---------------------------
Johannes Bergcc2ccca2007-03-05 00:30:27 -0800221
Jean Delvare11de70b2007-05-01 23:26:34 +0200222What: i2c-ixp2000, i2c-ixp4xx and scx200_i2c drivers
223When: September 2007
224Why: Obsolete. The new i2c-gpio driver replaces all hardware-specific
225 I2C-over-GPIO drivers.
226Who: Jean Delvare <khali@linux-fr.org>
227
228---------------------------
Adrian Bunk274ee1c2007-05-08 00:27:14 -0700229
Randy Dunlape84845c2007-07-15 23:40:25 -0700230What: 'time' kernel boot parameter
231When: January 2008
232Why: replaced by 'printk.time=<value>' so that printk timestamps can be
233 enabled or disabled as needed
234Who: Randy Dunlap <randy.dunlap@oracle.com>
235
236---------------------------
237
Adrian Bunk274ee1c2007-05-08 00:27:14 -0700238What: drivers depending on OSS_OBSOLETE
239When: options in 2.6.23, code in 2.6.25
240Why: obsolete OSS drivers
241Who: Adrian Bunk <bunk@stusta.de>
242
243---------------------------
244
Tejun Heod9aca222007-05-17 16:43:26 +0200245What: libata spindown skipping and warning
Tejun Heo920a4b12007-05-04 21:28:48 +0200246When: Dec 2008
Tejun Heod9aca222007-05-17 16:43:26 +0200247Why: Some halt(8) implementations synchronize caches for and spin
248 down libata disks because libata didn't use to spin down disk on
249 system halt (only synchronized caches).
250 Spin down on system halt is now implemented. sysfs node
251 /sys/class/scsi_disk/h:c:i:l/manage_start_stop is present if
252 spin down support is available.
Tejun Heo920a4b12007-05-04 21:28:48 +0200253 Because issuing spin down command to an already spun down disk
Tejun Heod9aca222007-05-17 16:43:26 +0200254 makes some disks spin up just to spin down again, libata tracks
255 device spindown status to skip the extra spindown command and
256 warn about it.
257 This is to give userspace tools the time to get updated and will
258 be removed after userspace is reasonably updated.
Tejun Heo920a4b12007-05-04 21:28:48 +0200259Who: Tejun Heo <htejun@gmail.com>
260
261---------------------------
262
Jean Delvareba7fbb72007-07-12 14:12:29 +0200263What: Legacy RTC drivers (under drivers/i2c/chips)
264When: November 2007
265Why: Obsolete. We have a RTC subsystem with better drivers.
266Who: Jean Delvare <khali@linux-fr.org>
267
268---------------------------
269
Patrick McHardy3569b622007-07-07 22:38:07 -0700270What: iptables SAME target
271When: 1.1. 2008
272Files: net/ipv4/netfilter/ipt_SAME.c, include/linux/netfilter_ipv4/ipt_SAME.h
273Why: Obsolete for multiple years now, NAT core provides the same behaviour.
274 Unfixable broken wrt. 32/64 bit cleanness.
275Who: Patrick McHardy <kaber@trash.net>
276
277---------------------------
Linus Torvalds489de302007-07-16 17:58:08 -0700278
Josh Boyer0b7dbfb2007-07-03 23:25:46 +1000279What: The arch/ppc and include/asm-ppc directories
280When: Jun 2008
281Why: The arch/powerpc tree is the merged architecture for ppc32 and ppc64
282 platforms. Currently there are efforts underway to port the remaining
283 arch/ppc platforms to the merged tree. New submissions to the arch/ppc
284 tree have been frozen with the 2.6.22 kernel release and that tree will
285 remain in bug-fix only mode until its scheduled removal. Platforms
286 that are not ported by June 2008 will be removed due to the lack of an
287 interested maintainer.
288Who: linuxppc-dev@ozlabs.org
289
290---------------------------
Roland Dreierf6be6fb2007-07-17 18:37:41 -0700291
292What: mthca driver's MSI support
293When: January 2008
294Files: drivers/infiniband/hw/mthca/*.[ch]
295Why: All mthca hardware also supports MSI-X, which provides
296 strictly more functionality than MSI. So there is no point in
297 having both MSI-X and MSI support in the driver.
298Who: Roland Dreier <rolandd@cisco.com>
299
300---------------------------
Stephen Hemminger5ad887f2007-09-15 19:35:14 -0400301
302What: sk98lin network driver
303When: Feburary 2008
304Why: In kernel tree version of driver is unmaintained. Sk98lin driver
305 replaced by the skge driver.
306Who: Stephen Hemminger <shemminger@linux-foundation.org>
307
308---------------------------
Stephen Hemminger6f4fc422007-09-17 11:44:25 -0700309
310What: shaper network driver
311When: January 2008
312Files: drivers/net/shaper.c, include/linux/if_shaper.h
313Why: This driver has been marked obsolete for many years.
314 It was only designed to work on lower speed links and has design
315 flaws that lead to machine crashes. The qdisc infrastructure in
316 2.4 or later kernels, provides richer features and is more robust.
317Who: Stephen Hemminger <shemminger@linux-foundation.org>