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.
7 ---------------------------
9 What: The ieee80211_regdom module parameter
12 Why: This was inherited by the CONFIG_WIRELESS_OLD_REGULATORY code,
13 and currently serves as an option for users to define an
14 ISO / IEC 3166 alpha2 code for the country they are currently
15 present in. Although there are userspace API replacements for this
16 through nl80211 distributions haven't yet caught up with implementing
17 decent alternatives through standard GUIs. Although available as an
18 option through iw or wpa_supplicant its just a matter of time before
19 distributions pick up good GUI options for this. The ideal solution
20 would actually consist of intelligent designs which would do this for
21 the user automatically even when travelling through different countries.
22 Until then we leave this module parameter as a compromise.
24 When userspace improves with reasonable widely-available alternatives for
25 this we will no longer need this module parameter. This entry hopes that
26 by the super-futuristically looking date of "March 2010" we will have
27 such replacements widely available.
29 Who: Luis R. Rodriguez <lrodriguez@atheros.com>
31 ---------------------------
33 What: old static regulatory information
35 Why: The old regulatory infrastructure has been replaced with a new one
36 which does not require statically defined regulatory domains. We do
37 not want to keep static regulatory domains in the kernel due to the
38 the dynamic nature of regulatory law and localization. We kept around
39 the old static definitions for the regulatory domains of:
43 and used by default the US when CONFIG_WIRELESS_OLD_REGULATORY was
45 Who: Luis R. Rodriguez <lrodriguez@atheros.com>
47 ---------------------------
49 What: dev->power.power_state
51 Why: Broken design for runtime control over driver power states, confusing
52 driver-internal runtime power management with: mechanisms to support
53 system-wide sleep state transitions; event codes that distinguish
54 different phases of swsusp "sleep" transitions; and userspace policy
55 inputs. This framework was never widely used, and most attempts to
56 use it were broken. Drivers should instead be exposing domain-specific
57 interfaces either to kernel or to userspace.
58 Who: Pavel Machek <pavel@suse.cz>
60 ---------------------------
62 What: Video4Linux API 1 ioctls and video_decoder.h from Video devices.
64 Files: include/linux/video_decoder.h include/linux/videodev.h
65 Check: include/linux/video_decoder.h include/linux/videodev.h
66 Why: V4L1 AP1 was replaced by V4L2 API during migration from 2.4 to 2.6
67 series. The old API have lots of drawbacks and don't provide enough
68 means to work with all video and audio standards. The newer API is
69 already available on the main drivers and should be used instead.
70 Newer drivers should use v4l_compat_translate_ioctl function to handle
71 old calls, replacing to newer ones.
72 Decoder iocts are using internally to allow video drivers to
73 communicate with video decoders. This should also be improved to allow
74 V4L2 calls being translated into compatible internal ioctls.
75 Compatibility ioctls will be provided, for a while, via
77 Who: Mauro Carvalho Chehab <mchehab@infradead.org>
79 ---------------------------
81 What: PCMCIA control ioctl (needed for pcmcia-cs [cardmgr, cardctl])
83 Files: drivers/pcmcia/: pcmcia_ioctl.c
84 Why: With the 16-bit PCMCIA subsystem now behaving (almost) like a
85 normal hotpluggable bus, and with it using the default kernel
86 infrastructure (hotplug, driver core, sysfs) keeping the PCMCIA
87 control ioctl needed by cardmgr and cardctl from pcmcia-cs is
88 unnecessary, and makes further cleanups and integration of the
89 PCMCIA subsystem into the Linux kernel device driver model more
90 difficult. The features provided by cardmgr and cardctl are either
91 handled by the kernel itself now or are available in the new
92 pcmciautils package available at
93 http://kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/pcmcia/
94 Who: Dominik Brodowski <linux@brodo.de>
96 ---------------------------
100 Option: CONFIG_SYSCTL_SYSCALL
101 Why: The same information is available in a more convenient from
102 /proc/sys, and none of the sysctl variables appear to be
103 important performance wise.
105 Binary sysctls are a long standing source of subtle kernel
106 bugs and security issues.
108 When I looked several months ago all I could find after
109 searching several distributions were 5 user space programs and
110 glibc (which falls back to /proc/sys) using this syscall.
112 The man page for sysctl(2) documents it as unusable for user
115 sysctl(2) is not generally ABI compatible to a 32bit user
116 space application on a 64bit and a 32bit kernel.
118 For the last several months the policy has been no new binary
119 sysctls and no one has put forward an argument to use them.
121 Binary sysctls issues seem to keep happening appearing so
122 properly deprecating them (with a warning to user space) and a
123 2 year grace warning period will mean eventually we can kill
124 them and end the pain.
126 In the mean time individual binary sysctls can be dealt with
127 in a piecewise fashion.
129 Who: Eric Biederman <ebiederm@xmission.com>
131 ---------------------------
133 What: remove EXPORT_SYMBOL(kernel_thread)
135 Files: arch/*/kernel/*_ksyms.c
137 Why: kernel_thread is a low-level implementation detail. Drivers should
138 use the <linux/kthread.h> API instead which shields them from
139 implementation details and provides a higherlevel interface that
140 prevents bugs and code duplication
141 Who: Christoph Hellwig <hch@lst.de>
143 ---------------------------
145 What: Unused EXPORT_SYMBOL/EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL exports
146 (temporary transition config option provided until then)
147 The transition config option will also be removed at the same time.
149 Why: Unused symbols are both increasing the size of the kernel binary
150 and are often a sign of "wrong API"
151 Who: Arjan van de Ven <arjan@linux.intel.com>
153 ---------------------------
155 What: PHYSDEVPATH, PHYSDEVBUS, PHYSDEVDRIVER in the uevent environment
157 Why: The stacking of class devices makes these values misleading and
159 Class devices should not carry any of these properties, and bus
160 devices have SUBSYTEM and DRIVER as a replacement.
161 Who: Kay Sievers <kay.sievers@suse.de>
163 ---------------------------
165 What: ACPI procfs interface
167 Why: ACPI sysfs conversion should be finished by January 2008.
168 ACPI procfs interface will be removed in July 2008 so that
169 there is enough time for the user space to catch up.
170 Who: Zhang Rui <rui.zhang@intel.com>
172 ---------------------------
174 What: /proc/acpi/button
176 Why: /proc/acpi/button has been replaced by events to the input layer
178 Who: Len Brown <len.brown@intel.com>
180 ---------------------------
182 What: /proc/acpi/event
184 Why: /proc/acpi/event has been replaced by events via the input layer
185 and netlink since 2.6.23.
186 Who: Len Brown <len.brown@intel.com>
188 ---------------------------
190 What: libata spindown skipping and warning
192 Why: Some halt(8) implementations synchronize caches for and spin
193 down libata disks because libata didn't use to spin down disk on
194 system halt (only synchronized caches).
195 Spin down on system halt is now implemented. sysfs node
196 /sys/class/scsi_disk/h:c:i:l/manage_start_stop is present if
197 spin down support is available.
198 Because issuing spin down command to an already spun down disk
199 makes some disks spin up just to spin down again, libata tracks
200 device spindown status to skip the extra spindown command and
202 This is to give userspace tools the time to get updated and will
203 be removed after userspace is reasonably updated.
204 Who: Tejun Heo <htejun@gmail.com>
206 ---------------------------
208 What: i386/x86_64 bzImage symlinks
211 Why: The i386/x86_64 merge provides a symlink to the old bzImage
212 location so not yet updated user space tools, e.g. package
213 scripts, do not break.
214 Who: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>
216 ---------------------------
219 - include/linux/netfilter_ipv4/ipt_TOS.h ipt_tos.h header files
220 (superseded by xt_TOS/xt_tos target & match)
222 - "forwarding" header files like ipt_mac.h in
223 include/linux/netfilter_ipv4/ and include/linux/netfilter_ipv6/
225 - xt_CONNMARK match revision 0
226 (superseded by xt_CONNMARK match revision 1)
228 - xt_MARK target revisions 0 and 1
229 (superseded by xt_MARK match revision 2)
231 - xt_connmark match revision 0
232 (superseded by xt_connmark match revision 1)
234 - xt_conntrack match revision 0
235 (superseded by xt_conntrack match revision 1)
237 - xt_iprange match revision 0,
238 include/linux/netfilter_ipv4/ipt_iprange.h
239 (superseded by xt_iprange match revision 1)
241 - xt_mark match revision 0
242 (superseded by xt_mark match revision 1)
244 - xt_recent: the old ipt_recent proc dir
245 (superseded by /proc/net/xt_recent)
247 When: January 2009 or Linux 2.7.0, whichever comes first
248 Why: Superseded by newer revisions or modules
249 Who: Jan Engelhardt <jengelh@computergmbh.de>
251 ---------------------------
253 What: b43 support for firmware revision < 410
254 When: The schedule was July 2008, but it was decided that we are going to keep the
255 code as long as there are no major maintanance headaches.
256 So it _could_ be removed _any_ time now, if it conflicts with something new.
257 Why: The support code for the old firmware hurts code readability/maintainability
258 and slightly hurts runtime performance. Bugfixes for the old firmware
259 are not provided by Broadcom anymore.
260 Who: Michael Buesch <mb@bu3sch.de>
262 ---------------------------
264 What: usedac i386 kernel parameter
266 Why: replaced by allowdac and no dac combination
267 Who: Glauber Costa <gcosta@redhat.com>
269 ---------------------------
271 What: remove HID compat support
273 Why: needed only as a temporary solution until distros fix themselves up
274 Who: Jiri Slaby <jirislaby@gmail.com>
276 ---------------------------
278 What: print_fn_descriptor_symbol()
280 Why: The %pF vsprintf format provides the same functionality in a
281 simpler way. print_fn_descriptor_symbol() is deprecated but
282 still present to give out-of-tree modules time to change.
283 Who: Bjorn Helgaas <bjorn.helgaas@hp.com>
285 ---------------------------
287 What: /sys/o2cb symlink
289 Why: /sys/fs/o2cb is the proper location for this information - /sys/o2cb
290 exists as a symlink for backwards compatibility for old versions of
291 ocfs2-tools. 2 years should be sufficient time to phase in new versions
292 which know to look in /sys/fs/o2cb.
293 Who: ocfs2-devel@oss.oracle.com
295 ---------------------------
297 What: SCTP_GET_PEER_ADDRS_NUM_OLD, SCTP_GET_PEER_ADDRS_OLD,
298 SCTP_GET_LOCAL_ADDRS_NUM_OLD, SCTP_GET_LOCAL_ADDRS_OLD
300 Why: A newer version of the options have been introduced in 2005 that
301 removes the limitions of the old API. The sctp library has been
302 converted to use these new options at the same time. Any user
303 space app that directly uses the old options should convert to using
305 Who: Vlad Yasevich <vladislav.yasevich@hp.com>
307 ---------------------------
309 What: CONFIG_THERMAL_HWMON
311 Why: This option was introduced just to allow older lm-sensors userspace
312 to keep working over the upgrade to 2.6.26. At the scheduled time of
313 removal fixed lm-sensors (2.x or 3.x) should be readily available.
314 Who: Rene Herman <rene.herman@gmail.com>
316 ---------------------------
318 What: Code that is now under CONFIG_WIRELESS_EXT_SYSFS
319 (in net/core/net-sysfs.c)
320 When: After the only user (hal) has seen a release with the patches
321 for enough time, probably some time in 2010.
322 Why: Over 1K .text/.data size reduction, data is available in other
324 Who: Johannes Berg <johannes@sipsolutions.net>
326 ---------------------------
328 What: CONFIG_NF_CT_ACCT
330 Why: Accounting can now be enabled/disabled without kernel recompilation.
331 Currently used only to set a default value for a feature that is also
332 controlled by a kernel/module/sysfs/sysctl parameter.
333 Who: Krzysztof Piotr Oledzki <ole@ans.pl>
335 ---------------------------
337 What: i2c_attach_client(), i2c_detach_client(), i2c_driver->detach_client()
338 When: 2.6.29 (ideally) or 2.6.30 (more likely)
339 Why: Deprecated by the new (standard) device driver binding model. Use
340 i2c_driver->probe() and ->remove() instead.
341 Who: Jean Delvare <khali@linux-fr.org>
343 ---------------------------
345 What: fscher and fscpos drivers
347 Why: Deprecated by the new fschmd driver.
348 Who: Hans de Goede <hdegoede@redhat.com>
349 Jean Delvare <khali@linux-fr.org>
351 ---------------------------
353 What: SELinux "compat_net" functionality
354 When: 2.6.30 at the earliest
355 Why: In 2.6.18 the Secmark concept was introduced to replace the "compat_net"
356 network access control functionality of SELinux. Secmark offers both
357 better performance and greater flexibility than the "compat_net"
358 mechanism. Now that the major Linux distributions have moved to
359 Secmark, it is time to deprecate the older mechanism and start the
360 process of removing the old code.
361 Who: Paul Moore <paul.moore@hp.com>
362 ---------------------------
364 What: sysfs ui for changing p4-clockmod parameters
366 Why: See commits 129f8ae9b1b5be94517da76009ea956e89104ce8 and
367 e088e4c9cdb618675874becb91b2fd581ee707e6.
368 Removal is subject to fixing any remaining bugs in ACPI which may
369 cause the thermal throttling not to happen at the right time.
370 Who: Dave Jones <davej@redhat.com>, Matthew Garrett <mjg@redhat.com>
372 -----------------------------
374 What: __do_IRQ all in one fits nothing interrupt handler
376 Why: __do_IRQ was kept for easy migration to the type flow handlers.
377 More than two years of migration time is enough.
378 Who: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>
380 -----------------------------
382 What: obsolete generic irq defines and typedefs
384 Why: The defines and typedefs (hw_interrupt_type, no_irq_type, irq_desc_t)
385 have been kept around for migration reasons. After more than two years
386 it's time to remove them finally
387 Who: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>