Merge branch 'slub/hotplug' into slab/urgent
[GitHub/mt8127/android_kernel_alcatel_ttab.git] / Documentation / feature-removal-schedule.txt
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
9 What: PRISM54
10 When: 2.6.34
11
12 Why: prism54 FullMAC PCI / Cardbus devices used to be supported only by the
13 prism54 wireless driver. After Intersil stopped selling these
14 devices in preference for the newer more flexible SoftMAC devices
15 a SoftMAC device driver was required and prism54 did not support
16 them. The p54pci driver now exists and has been present in the kernel for
17 a while. This driver supports both SoftMAC devices and FullMAC devices.
18 The main difference between these devices was the amount of memory which
19 could be used for the firmware. The SoftMAC devices support a smaller
20 amount of memory. Because of this the SoftMAC firmware fits into FullMAC
21 devices's memory. p54pci supports not only PCI / Cardbus but also USB
22 and SPI. Since p54pci supports all devices prism54 supports
23 you will have a conflict. I'm not quite sure how distributions are
24 handling this conflict right now. prism54 was kept around due to
25 claims users may experience issues when using the SoftMAC driver.
26 Time has passed users have not reported issues. If you use prism54
27 and for whatever reason you cannot use p54pci please let us know!
28 E-mail us at: linux-wireless@vger.kernel.org
29
30 For more information see the p54 wiki page:
31
32 http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/p54
33
34 Who: Luis R. Rodriguez <lrodriguez@atheros.com>
35
36 ---------------------------
37
38 What: IRQF_SAMPLE_RANDOM
39 Check: IRQF_SAMPLE_RANDOM
40 When: July 2009
41
42 Why: Many of IRQF_SAMPLE_RANDOM users are technically bogus as entropy
43 sources in the kernel's current entropy model. To resolve this, every
44 input point to the kernel's entropy pool needs to better document the
45 type of entropy source it actually is. This will be replaced with
46 additional add_*_randomness functions in drivers/char/random.c
47
48 Who: Robin Getz <rgetz@blackfin.uclinux.org> & Matt Mackall <mpm@selenic.com>
49
50 ---------------------------
51
52 What: Deprecated snapshot ioctls
53 When: 2.6.36
54
55 Why: The ioctls in kernel/power/user.c were marked as deprecated long time
56 ago. Now they notify users about that so that they need to replace
57 their userspace. After some more time, remove them completely.
58
59 Who: Jiri Slaby <jirislaby@gmail.com>
60
61 ---------------------------
62
63 What: The ieee80211_regdom module parameter
64 When: March 2010 / desktop catchup
65
66 Why: This was inherited by the CONFIG_WIRELESS_OLD_REGULATORY code,
67 and currently serves as an option for users to define an
68 ISO / IEC 3166 alpha2 code for the country they are currently
69 present in. Although there are userspace API replacements for this
70 through nl80211 distributions haven't yet caught up with implementing
71 decent alternatives through standard GUIs. Although available as an
72 option through iw or wpa_supplicant its just a matter of time before
73 distributions pick up good GUI options for this. The ideal solution
74 would actually consist of intelligent designs which would do this for
75 the user automatically even when travelling through different countries.
76 Until then we leave this module parameter as a compromise.
77
78 When userspace improves with reasonable widely-available alternatives for
79 this we will no longer need this module parameter. This entry hopes that
80 by the super-futuristically looking date of "March 2010" we will have
81 such replacements widely available.
82
83 Who: Luis R. Rodriguez <lrodriguez@atheros.com>
84
85 ---------------------------
86
87 What: dev->power.power_state
88 When: July 2007
89 Why: Broken design for runtime control over driver power states, confusing
90 driver-internal runtime power management with: mechanisms to support
91 system-wide sleep state transitions; event codes that distinguish
92 different phases of swsusp "sleep" transitions; and userspace policy
93 inputs. This framework was never widely used, and most attempts to
94 use it were broken. Drivers should instead be exposing domain-specific
95 interfaces either to kernel or to userspace.
96 Who: Pavel Machek <pavel@ucw.cz>
97
98 ---------------------------
99
100 What: Video4Linux obsolete drivers using V4L1 API
101 When: kernel 2.6.39
102 Files: drivers/staging/se401/* drivers/staging/usbvideo/*
103 Check: drivers/staging/se401/se401.c drivers/staging/usbvideo/usbvideo.c
104 Why: There are some drivers still using V4L1 API, despite all efforts we've done
105 to migrate. Those drivers are for obsolete hardware that the old maintainer
106 didn't care (or not have the hardware anymore), and that no other developer
107 could find any hardware to buy. They probably have no practical usage today,
108 and people with such old hardware could probably keep using an older version
109 of the kernel. Those drivers will be moved to staging on 2.6.38 and, if nobody
110 cares enough to port and test them with V4L2 API, they'll be removed on 2.6.39.
111 Who: Mauro Carvalho Chehab <mchehab@infradead.org>
112
113 ---------------------------
114
115 What: Video4Linux: Remove obsolete ioctl's
116 When: kernel 2.6.39
117 Files: include/media/videodev2.h
118 Why: Some ioctl's were defined wrong on 2.6.2 and 2.6.6, using the wrong
119 type of R/W arguments. They were fixed, but the old ioctl names are
120 still there, maintained to avoid breaking binary compatibility:
121 #define VIDIOC_OVERLAY_OLD _IOWR('V', 14, int)
122 #define VIDIOC_S_PARM_OLD _IOW('V', 22, struct v4l2_streamparm)
123 #define VIDIOC_S_CTRL_OLD _IOW('V', 28, struct v4l2_control)
124 #define VIDIOC_G_AUDIO_OLD _IOWR('V', 33, struct v4l2_audio)
125 #define VIDIOC_G_AUDOUT_OLD _IOWR('V', 49, struct v4l2_audioout)
126 #define VIDIOC_CROPCAP_OLD _IOR('V', 58, struct v4l2_cropcap)
127 There's no sense on preserving those forever, as it is very doubtful
128 that someone would try to use a such old binary with a modern kernel.
129 Removing them will allow us to remove some magic done at the V4L ioctl
130 handler.
131
132 Who: Mauro Carvalho Chehab <mchehab@infradead.org>
133
134 ---------------------------
135
136 What: sys_sysctl
137 When: September 2010
138 Option: CONFIG_SYSCTL_SYSCALL
139 Why: The same information is available in a more convenient from
140 /proc/sys, and none of the sysctl variables appear to be
141 important performance wise.
142
143 Binary sysctls are a long standing source of subtle kernel
144 bugs and security issues.
145
146 When I looked several months ago all I could find after
147 searching several distributions were 5 user space programs and
148 glibc (which falls back to /proc/sys) using this syscall.
149
150 The man page for sysctl(2) documents it as unusable for user
151 space programs.
152
153 sysctl(2) is not generally ABI compatible to a 32bit user
154 space application on a 64bit and a 32bit kernel.
155
156 For the last several months the policy has been no new binary
157 sysctls and no one has put forward an argument to use them.
158
159 Binary sysctls issues seem to keep happening appearing so
160 properly deprecating them (with a warning to user space) and a
161 2 year grace warning period will mean eventually we can kill
162 them and end the pain.
163
164 In the mean time individual binary sysctls can be dealt with
165 in a piecewise fashion.
166
167 Who: Eric Biederman <ebiederm@xmission.com>
168
169 ---------------------------
170
171 What: /proc/<pid>/oom_adj
172 When: August 2012
173 Why: /proc/<pid>/oom_adj allows userspace to influence the oom killer's
174 badness heuristic used to determine which task to kill when the kernel
175 is out of memory.
176
177 The badness heuristic has since been rewritten since the introduction of
178 this tunable such that its meaning is deprecated. The value was
179 implemented as a bitshift on a score generated by the badness()
180 function that did not have any precise units of measure. With the
181 rewrite, the score is given as a proportion of available memory to the
182 task allocating pages, so using a bitshift which grows the score
183 exponentially is, thus, impossible to tune with fine granularity.
184
185 A much more powerful interface, /proc/<pid>/oom_score_adj, was
186 introduced with the oom killer rewrite that allows users to increase or
187 decrease the badness() score linearly. This interface will replace
188 /proc/<pid>/oom_adj.
189
190 A warning will be emitted to the kernel log if an application uses this
191 deprecated interface. After it is printed once, future warnings will be
192 suppressed until the kernel is rebooted.
193
194 ---------------------------
195
196 What: CS5535/CS5536 obsolete GPIO driver
197 When: June 2011
198 Files: drivers/staging/cs5535_gpio/*
199 Check: drivers/staging/cs5535_gpio/cs5535_gpio.c
200 Why: A newer driver replaces this; it is drivers/gpio/cs5535-gpio.c, and
201 integrates with the Linux GPIO subsystem. The old driver has been
202 moved to staging, and will be removed altogether around 2.6.40.
203 Please test the new driver, and ensure that the functionality you
204 need and any bugfixes from the old driver are available in the new
205 one.
206 Who: Andres Salomon <dilinger@queued.net>
207
208 --------------------------
209
210 What: remove EXPORT_SYMBOL(kernel_thread)
211 When: August 2006
212 Files: arch/*/kernel/*_ksyms.c
213 Check: kernel_thread
214 Why: kernel_thread is a low-level implementation detail. Drivers should
215 use the <linux/kthread.h> API instead which shields them from
216 implementation details and provides a higherlevel interface that
217 prevents bugs and code duplication
218 Who: Christoph Hellwig <hch@lst.de>
219
220 ---------------------------
221
222 What: Unused EXPORT_SYMBOL/EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL exports
223 (temporary transition config option provided until then)
224 The transition config option will also be removed at the same time.
225 When: before 2.6.19
226 Why: Unused symbols are both increasing the size of the kernel binary
227 and are often a sign of "wrong API"
228 Who: Arjan van de Ven <arjan@linux.intel.com>
229
230 ---------------------------
231
232 What: PHYSDEVPATH, PHYSDEVBUS, PHYSDEVDRIVER in the uevent environment
233 When: October 2008
234 Why: The stacking of class devices makes these values misleading and
235 inconsistent.
236 Class devices should not carry any of these properties, and bus
237 devices have SUBSYTEM and DRIVER as a replacement.
238 Who: Kay Sievers <kay.sievers@suse.de>
239
240 ---------------------------
241
242 What: ACPI procfs interface
243 When: July 2008
244 Why: ACPI sysfs conversion should be finished by January 2008.
245 ACPI procfs interface will be removed in July 2008 so that
246 there is enough time for the user space to catch up.
247 Who: Zhang Rui <rui.zhang@intel.com>
248
249 ---------------------------
250
251 What: CONFIG_ACPI_PROCFS_POWER
252 When: 2.6.39
253 Why: sysfs I/F for ACPI power devices, including AC and Battery,
254 has been working in upstream kenrel since 2.6.24, Sep 2007.
255 In 2.6.37, we make the sysfs I/F always built in and this option
256 disabled by default.
257 Remove this option and the ACPI power procfs interface in 2.6.39.
258 Who: Zhang Rui <rui.zhang@intel.com>
259
260 ---------------------------
261
262 What: /proc/acpi/button
263 When: August 2007
264 Why: /proc/acpi/button has been replaced by events to the input layer
265 since 2.6.20.
266 Who: Len Brown <len.brown@intel.com>
267
268 ---------------------------
269
270 What: /proc/acpi/event
271 When: February 2008
272 Why: /proc/acpi/event has been replaced by events via the input layer
273 and netlink since 2.6.23.
274 Who: Len Brown <len.brown@intel.com>
275
276 ---------------------------
277
278 What: i386/x86_64 bzImage symlinks
279 When: April 2010
280
281 Why: The i386/x86_64 merge provides a symlink to the old bzImage
282 location so not yet updated user space tools, e.g. package
283 scripts, do not break.
284 Who: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>
285
286 ---------------------------
287
288 What: GPIO autorequest on gpio_direction_{input,output}() in gpiolib
289 When: February 2010
290 Why: All callers should use explicit gpio_request()/gpio_free().
291 The autorequest mechanism in gpiolib was provided mostly as a
292 migration aid for legacy GPIO interfaces (for SOC based GPIOs).
293 Those users have now largely migrated. Platforms implementing
294 the GPIO interfaces without using gpiolib will see no changes.
295 Who: David Brownell <dbrownell@users.sourceforge.net>
296 ---------------------------
297
298 What: b43 support for firmware revision < 410
299 When: The schedule was July 2008, but it was decided that we are going to keep the
300 code as long as there are no major maintanance headaches.
301 So it _could_ be removed _any_ time now, if it conflicts with something new.
302 Why: The support code for the old firmware hurts code readability/maintainability
303 and slightly hurts runtime performance. Bugfixes for the old firmware
304 are not provided by Broadcom anymore.
305 Who: Michael Buesch <mb@bu3sch.de>
306
307 ---------------------------
308
309 What: /sys/o2cb symlink
310 When: January 2010
311 Why: /sys/fs/o2cb is the proper location for this information - /sys/o2cb
312 exists as a symlink for backwards compatibility for old versions of
313 ocfs2-tools. 2 years should be sufficient time to phase in new versions
314 which know to look in /sys/fs/o2cb.
315 Who: ocfs2-devel@oss.oracle.com
316
317 ---------------------------
318
319 What: Ability for non root users to shm_get hugetlb pages based on mlock
320 resource limits
321 When: 2.6.31
322 Why: Non root users need to be part of /proc/sys/vm/hugetlb_shm_group or
323 have CAP_IPC_LOCK to be able to allocate shm segments backed by
324 huge pages. The mlock based rlimit check to allow shm hugetlb is
325 inconsistent with mmap based allocations. Hence it is being
326 deprecated.
327 Who: Ravikiran Thirumalai <kiran@scalex86.org>
328
329 ---------------------------
330
331 What: CONFIG_THERMAL_HWMON
332 When: January 2009
333 Why: This option was introduced just to allow older lm-sensors userspace
334 to keep working over the upgrade to 2.6.26. At the scheduled time of
335 removal fixed lm-sensors (2.x or 3.x) should be readily available.
336 Who: Rene Herman <rene.herman@gmail.com>
337
338 ---------------------------
339
340 What: Code that is now under CONFIG_WIRELESS_EXT_SYSFS
341 (in net/core/net-sysfs.c)
342 When: After the only user (hal) has seen a release with the patches
343 for enough time, probably some time in 2010.
344 Why: Over 1K .text/.data size reduction, data is available in other
345 ways (ioctls)
346 Who: Johannes Berg <johannes@sipsolutions.net>
347
348 ---------------------------
349
350 What: sysfs ui for changing p4-clockmod parameters
351 When: September 2009
352 Why: See commits 129f8ae9b1b5be94517da76009ea956e89104ce8 and
353 e088e4c9cdb618675874becb91b2fd581ee707e6.
354 Removal is subject to fixing any remaining bugs in ACPI which may
355 cause the thermal throttling not to happen at the right time.
356 Who: Dave Jones <davej@redhat.com>, Matthew Garrett <mjg@redhat.com>
357
358 -----------------------------
359
360 What: __do_IRQ all in one fits nothing interrupt handler
361 When: 2.6.32
362 Why: __do_IRQ was kept for easy migration to the type flow handlers.
363 More than two years of migration time is enough.
364 Who: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>
365
366 -----------------------------
367
368 What: fakephp and associated sysfs files in /sys/bus/pci/slots/
369 When: 2011
370 Why: In 2.6.27, the semantics of /sys/bus/pci/slots was redefined to
371 represent a machine's physical PCI slots. The change in semantics
372 had userspace implications, as the hotplug core no longer allowed
373 drivers to create multiple sysfs files per physical slot (required
374 for multi-function devices, e.g.). fakephp was seen as a developer's
375 tool only, and its interface changed. Too late, we learned that
376 there were some users of the fakephp interface.
377
378 In 2.6.30, the original fakephp interface was restored. At the same
379 time, the PCI core gained the ability that fakephp provided, namely
380 function-level hot-remove and hot-add.
381
382 Since the PCI core now provides the same functionality, exposed in:
383
384 /sys/bus/pci/rescan
385 /sys/bus/pci/devices/.../remove
386 /sys/bus/pci/devices/.../rescan
387
388 there is no functional reason to maintain fakephp as well.
389
390 We will keep the existing module so that 'modprobe fakephp' will
391 present the old /sys/bus/pci/slots/... interface for compatibility,
392 but users are urged to migrate their applications to the API above.
393
394 After a reasonable transition period, we will remove the legacy
395 fakephp interface.
396 Who: Alex Chiang <achiang@hp.com>
397
398 ---------------------------
399
400 What: CONFIG_RFKILL_INPUT
401 When: 2.6.33
402 Why: Should be implemented in userspace, policy daemon.
403 Who: Johannes Berg <johannes@sipsolutions.net>
404
405 ----------------------------
406
407 What: sound-slot/service-* module aliases and related clutters in
408 sound/sound_core.c
409 When: August 2010
410 Why: OSS sound_core grabs all legacy minors (0-255) of SOUND_MAJOR
411 (14) and requests modules using custom sound-slot/service-*
412 module aliases. The only benefit of doing this is allowing
413 use of custom module aliases which might as well be considered
414 a bug at this point. This preemptive claiming prevents
415 alternative OSS implementations.
416
417 Till the feature is removed, the kernel will be requesting
418 both sound-slot/service-* and the standard char-major-* module
419 aliases and allow turning off the pre-claiming selectively via
420 CONFIG_SOUND_OSS_CORE_PRECLAIM and soundcore.preclaim_oss
421 kernel parameter.
422
423 After the transition phase is complete, both the custom module
424 aliases and switches to disable it will go away. This removal
425 will also allow making ALSA OSS emulation independent of
426 sound_core. The dependency will be broken then too.
427 Who: Tejun Heo <tj@kernel.org>
428
429 ----------------------------
430
431 What: Support for lcd_switch and display_get in asus-laptop driver
432 When: March 2010
433 Why: These two features use non-standard interfaces. There are the
434 only features that really need multiple path to guess what's
435 the right method name on a specific laptop.
436
437 Removing them will allow to remove a lot of code an significantly
438 clean the drivers.
439
440 This will affect the backlight code which won't be able to know
441 if the backlight is on or off. The platform display file will also be
442 write only (like the one in eeepc-laptop).
443
444 This should'nt affect a lot of user because they usually know
445 when their display is on or off.
446
447 Who: Corentin Chary <corentin.chary@gmail.com>
448
449 ----------------------------
450
451 What: sysfs-class-rfkill state file
452 When: Feb 2014
453 Files: net/rfkill/core.c
454 Why: Documented as obsolete since Feb 2010. This file is limited to 3
455 states while the rfkill drivers can have 4 states.
456 Who: anybody or Florian Mickler <florian@mickler.org>
457
458 ----------------------------
459
460 What: sysfs-class-rfkill claim file
461 When: Feb 2012
462 Files: net/rfkill/core.c
463 Why: It is not possible to claim an rfkill driver since 2007. This is
464 Documented as obsolete since Feb 2010.
465 Who: anybody or Florian Mickler <florian@mickler.org>
466
467 ----------------------------
468
469 What: capifs
470 When: February 2011
471 Files: drivers/isdn/capi/capifs.*
472 Why: udev fully replaces this special file system that only contains CAPI
473 NCCI TTY device nodes. User space (pppdcapiplugin) works without
474 noticing the difference.
475 Who: Jan Kiszka <jan.kiszka@web.de>
476
477 ----------------------------
478
479 What: KVM paravirt mmu host support
480 When: January 2011
481 Why: The paravirt mmu host support is slower than non-paravirt mmu, both
482 on newer and older hardware. It is already not exposed to the guest,
483 and kept only for live migration purposes.
484 Who: Avi Kivity <avi@redhat.com>
485
486 ----------------------------
487
488 What: iwlwifi 50XX module parameters
489 When: 2.6.40
490 Why: The "..50" modules parameters were used to configure 5000 series and
491 up devices; different set of module parameters also available for 4965
492 with same functionalities. Consolidate both set into single place
493 in drivers/net/wireless/iwlwifi/iwl-agn.c
494
495 Who: Wey-Yi Guy <wey-yi.w.guy@intel.com>
496
497 ----------------------------
498
499 What: iwl4965 alias support
500 When: 2.6.40
501 Why: Internal alias support has been present in module-init-tools for some
502 time, the MODULE_ALIAS("iwl4965") boilerplate aliases can be removed
503 with no impact.
504
505 Who: Wey-Yi Guy <wey-yi.w.guy@intel.com>
506
507 ---------------------------
508
509 What: xt_NOTRACK
510 Files: net/netfilter/xt_NOTRACK.c
511 When: April 2011
512 Why: Superseded by xt_CT
513 Who: Netfilter developer team <netfilter-devel@vger.kernel.org>
514
515 ----------------------------
516
517 What: IRQF_DISABLED
518 When: 2.6.36
519 Why: The flag is a NOOP as we run interrupt handlers with interrupts disabled
520 Who: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>
521
522 ----------------------------
523
524 What: The acpi_sleep=s4_nonvs command line option
525 When: 2.6.37
526 Files: arch/x86/kernel/acpi/sleep.c
527 Why: superseded by acpi_sleep=nonvs
528 Who: Rafael J. Wysocki <rjw@sisk.pl>
529
530 ----------------------------
531
532 What: PCI DMA unmap state API
533 When: August 2012
534 Why: PCI DMA unmap state API (include/linux/pci-dma.h) was replaced
535 with DMA unmap state API (DMA unmap state API can be used for
536 any bus).
537 Who: FUJITA Tomonori <fujita.tomonori@lab.ntt.co.jp>
538
539 ----------------------------
540
541 What: DMA_xxBIT_MASK macros
542 When: Jun 2011
543 Why: DMA_xxBIT_MASK macros were replaced with DMA_BIT_MASK() macros.
544 Who: FUJITA Tomonori <fujita.tomonori@lab.ntt.co.jp>
545
546 ----------------------------
547
548 What: namespace cgroup (ns_cgroup)
549 When: 2.6.38
550 Why: The ns_cgroup leads to some problems:
551 * cgroup creation is out-of-control
552 * cgroup name can conflict when pids are looping
553 * it is not possible to have a single process handling
554 a lot of namespaces without falling in a exponential creation time
555 * we may want to create a namespace without creating a cgroup
556
557 The ns_cgroup is replaced by a compatibility flag 'clone_children',
558 where a newly created cgroup will copy the parent cgroup values.
559 The userspace has to manually create a cgroup and add a task to
560 the 'tasks' file.
561 Who: Daniel Lezcano <daniel.lezcano@free.fr>
562
563 ----------------------------
564
565 What: iwlwifi disable_hw_scan module parameters
566 When: 2.6.40
567 Why: Hareware scan is the prefer method for iwlwifi devices for
568 scanning operation. Remove software scan support for all the
569 iwlwifi devices.
570
571 Who: Wey-Yi Guy <wey-yi.w.guy@intel.com>
572
573 ----------------------------
574
575 What: access to nfsd auth cache through sys_nfsservctl or '.' files
576 in the 'nfsd' filesystem.
577 When: 2.6.40
578 Why: This is a legacy interface which have been replaced by a more
579 dynamic cache. Continuing to maintain this interface is an
580 unnecessary burden.
581 Who: NeilBrown <neilb@suse.de>
582
583 ----------------------------
584
585 What: i2c_adapter.id
586 When: June 2011
587 Why: This field is deprecated. I2C device drivers shouldn't change their
588 behavior based on the underlying I2C adapter. Instead, the I2C
589 adapter driver should instantiate the I2C devices and provide the
590 needed platform-specific information.
591 Who: Jean Delvare <khali@linux-fr.org>
592
593 ----------------------------
594
595 What: cancel_rearming_delayed_work[queue]()
596 When: 2.6.39
597
598 Why: The functions have been superceded by cancel_delayed_work_sync()
599 quite some time ago. The conversion is trivial and there is no
600 in-kernel user left.
601 Who: Tejun Heo <tj@kernel.org>
602
603 ----------------------------
604
605 What: Legacy, non-standard chassis intrusion detection interface.
606 When: June 2011
607 Why: The adm9240, w83792d and w83793 hardware monitoring drivers have
608 legacy interfaces for chassis intrusion detection. A standard
609 interface has been added to each driver, so the legacy interface
610 can be removed.
611 Who: Jean Delvare <khali@linux-fr.org>
612
613 ----------------------------