---------------------------
+What: sys_sysctl
+When: September 2010
+Option: CONFIG_SYSCTL_SYSCALL
+Why: The same information is available in a more convenient from
+ /proc/sys, and none of the sysctl variables appear to be
+ important performance wise.
+
+ Binary sysctls are a long standing source of subtle kernel
+ bugs and security issues.
+
+ When I looked several months ago all I could find after
+ searching several distributions were 5 user space programs and
+ glibc (which falls back to /proc/sys) using this syscall.
+
+ The man page for sysctl(2) documents it as unusable for user
+ space programs.
+
+ sysctl(2) is not generally ABI compatible to a 32bit user
+ space application on a 64bit and a 32bit kernel.
+
+ For the last several months the policy has been no new binary
+ sysctls and no one has put forward an argument to use them.
+
+ Binary sysctls issues seem to keep happening appearing so
+ properly deprecating them (with a warning to user space) and a
+ 2 year grace warning period will mean eventually we can kill
+ them and end the pain.
+
+ In the mean time individual binary sysctls can be dealt with
+ in a piecewise fashion.
+
+Who: Eric Biederman <ebiederm@xmission.com>
+
+---------------------------
+
+What: a.out interpreter support for ELF executables
+When: 2.6.25
+Files: fs/binfmt_elf.c
+Why: Using a.out interpreters for ELF executables was a feature for
+ transition from a.out to ELF. But now it is unlikely to be still
+ needed anymore and removing it would simplify the hairy ELF
+ loader code.
+Who: Andi Kleen <ak@suse.de>
+
+---------------------------
+
What: remove EXPORT_SYMBOL(kernel_thread)
When: August 2006
Files: arch/*/kernel/*_ksyms.c
---------------------------
-What: i2c-isa
-When: December 2006
-Why: i2c-isa is a non-sense and doesn't fit in the device driver
- model. Drivers relying on it are better implemented as platform
- drivers.
-Who: Jean Delvare <khali@linux-fr.org>
-
----------------------------
-
What: i2c_adapter.list
When: July 2007
Why: Superfluous, this list duplicates the one maintained by the driver
---------------------------
-What: drivers depending on OBSOLETE_OSS
-When: options in 2.6.22, code in 2.6.24
-Why: OSS drivers with ALSA replacements
-Who: Adrian Bunk <bunk@stusta.de>
-
----------------------------
-
-What: /sys/firmware/acpi/namespace
-When: 2.6.21
-Why: The ACPI namespace is effectively the symbol list for
- the BIOS. The device names are completely arbitrary
- and have no place being exposed to user-space.
-
- For those interested in the BIOS ACPI namespace,
- the BIOS can be extracted and disassembled with acpidump
- and iasl as documented in the pmtools package here:
- http://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/lenb/acpi/utils
-Who: Len Brown <len.brown@intel.com>
-
----------------------------
-
What: ACPI procfs interface
-When: July 2007
-Why: After ACPI sysfs conversion, ACPI attributes will be duplicated
- in sysfs and the ACPI procfs interface should be removed.
+When: July 2008
+Why: ACPI sysfs conversion should be finished by January 2008.
+ ACPI procfs interface will be removed in July 2008 so that
+ there is enough time for the user space to catch up.
Who: Zhang Rui <rui.zhang@intel.com>
---------------------------
---------------------------
-What: Compaq touchscreen device emulation
-When: Oct 2007
-Files: drivers/input/tsdev.c
-Why: The code says it was obsolete when it was written in 2001.
- tslib is a userspace library which does anything tsdev can do and
- much more besides in userspace where this code belongs. There is no
- longer any need for tsdev and applications should have converted to
- use tslib by now.
- The name "tsdev" is also extremely confusing and lots of people have
- it loaded when they don't need/use it.
-Who: Richard Purdie <rpurdie@rpsys.net>
-
----------------------------
-
-What: read_dev_chars(), read_conf_data{,_lpm}() (s390 common I/O layer)
-When: December 2007
-Why: These functions are a leftover from 2.4 times. They have several
- problems:
- - Duplication of checks that are done in the device driver's
- interrupt handler
- - common I/O layer can't do device specific error recovery
- - device driver can't be notified for conditions happening during
- execution of the function
- Device drivers should issue the read device characteristics and read
- configuration data ccws and do the appropriate error handling
- themselves.
-Who: Cornelia Huck <cornelia.huck@de.ibm.com>
+What: /proc/acpi/event
+When: February 2008
+Why: /proc/acpi/event has been replaced by events via the input layer
+ and netlink since 2.6.23.
+Who: Len Brown <len.brown@intel.com>
---------------------------
Who: Roland Dreier <rolandd@cisco.com>
---------------------------
+
+What: sk98lin network driver
+When: Feburary 2008
+Why: In kernel tree version of driver is unmaintained. Sk98lin driver
+ replaced by the skge driver.
+Who: Stephen Hemminger <shemminger@linux-foundation.org>
+
+---------------------------
+
+What: i386/x86_64 bzImage symlinks
+When: April 2008
+
+Why: The i386/x86_64 merge provides a symlink to the old bzImage
+ location so not yet updated user space tools, e.g. package
+ scripts, do not break.
+Who: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>
+
+---------------------------
+
+What: shaper network driver
+When: January 2008
+Files: drivers/net/shaper.c, include/linux/if_shaper.h
+Why: This driver has been marked obsolete for many years.
+ It was only designed to work on lower speed links and has design
+ flaws that lead to machine crashes. The qdisc infrastructure in
+ 2.4 or later kernels, provides richer features and is more robust.
+Who: Stephen Hemminger <shemminger@linux-foundation.org>
+
+---------------------------
git://ftp.safe.ca / safe / jmp / linux-2.6 / blobdiff