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 ---------------------------
11 Files: fs/devfs/*, include/linux/devfs_fs*.h and assorted devfs
12 function calls throughout the kernel tree
13 Why: It has been unmaintained for a number of years, has unfixable
14 races, contains a naming policy within the kernel that is
15 against the LSB, and can be replaced by using udev.
16 Who: Greg Kroah-Hartman <greg@kroah.com>
18 ---------------------------
20 What: RAW driver (CONFIG_RAW_DRIVER)
22 Why: declared obsolete since kernel 2.6.3
23 O_DIRECT can be used instead
24 Who: Adrian Bunk <bunk@stusta.de>
26 ---------------------------
28 What: drivers that were depending on OBSOLETE_OSS_DRIVER
29 (config options already removed)
31 Why: OSS drivers with ALSA replacements
32 Who: Adrian Bunk <bunk@stusta.de>
34 ---------------------------
36 What: raw1394: requests of type RAW1394_REQ_ISO_SEND, RAW1394_REQ_ISO_LISTEN
38 Why: Deprecated in favour of the new ioctl-based rawiso interface, which is
39 more efficient. You should really be using libraw1394 for raw1394
41 Who: Jody McIntyre <scjody@modernduck.com>
43 ---------------------------
45 What: sbp2: module parameter "force_inquiry_hack"
47 Why: Superceded by parameter "workarounds". Both parameters are meant to be
48 used ad-hoc and for single devices only, i.e. not in modprobe.conf,
49 therefore the impact of this feature replacement should be low.
50 Who: Stefan Richter <stefanr@s5r6.in-berlin.de>
52 ---------------------------
54 What: Video4Linux API 1 ioctls and video_decoder.h from Video devices.
56 Why: V4L1 AP1 was replaced by V4L2 API. during migration from 2.4 to 2.6
57 series. The old API have lots of drawbacks and don't provide enough
58 means to work with all video and audio standards. The newer API is
59 already available on the main drivers and should be used instead.
60 Newer drivers should use v4l_compat_translate_ioctl function to handle
61 old calls, replacing to newer ones.
62 Decoder iocts are using internally to allow video drivers to
63 communicate with video decoders. This should also be improved to allow
64 V4L2 calls being translated into compatible internal ioctls.
65 Who: Mauro Carvalho Chehab <mchehab@brturbo.com.br>
67 ---------------------------
69 What: remove EXPORT_SYMBOL(insert_resource)
71 Files: kernel/resource.c
72 Why: No modular usage in the kernel.
73 Who: Adrian Bunk <bunk@stusta.de>
75 ---------------------------
77 What: PCMCIA control ioctl (needed for pcmcia-cs [cardmgr, cardctl])
79 Files: drivers/pcmcia/: pcmcia_ioctl.c
80 Why: With the 16-bit PCMCIA subsystem now behaving (almost) like a
81 normal hotpluggable bus, and with it using the default kernel
82 infrastructure (hotplug, driver core, sysfs) keeping the PCMCIA
83 control ioctl needed by cardmgr and cardctl from pcmcia-cs is
84 unnecessary, and makes further cleanups and integration of the
85 PCMCIA subsystem into the Linux kernel device driver model more
86 difficult. The features provided by cardmgr and cardctl are either
87 handled by the kernel itself now or are available in the new
88 pcmciautils package available at
89 http://kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/pcmcia/
90 Who: Dominik Brodowski <linux@brodo.de>
92 ---------------------------
94 What: ip_queue and ip6_queue (old ipv4-only and ipv6-only netfilter queue)
96 Why: This interface has been obsoleted by the new layer3-independent
97 "nfnetlink_queue". The Kernel interface is compatible, so the old
98 ip[6]tables "QUEUE" targets still work and will transparently handle
99 all packets into nfnetlink queue number 0. Userspace users will have
100 to link against API-compatible library on top of libnfnetlink_queue
101 instead of the current 'libipq'.
102 Who: Harald Welte <laforge@netfilter.org>
104 ---------------------------
106 What: remove EXPORT_SYMBOL(kernel_thread)
108 Files: arch/*/kernel/*_ksyms.c
109 Why: kernel_thread is a low-level implementation detail. Drivers should
110 use the <linux/kthread.h> API instead which shields them from
111 implementation details and provides a higherlevel interface that
112 prevents bugs and code duplication
113 Who: Christoph Hellwig <hch@lst.de>
115 ---------------------------
117 What: CONFIG_FORCED_INLINING
119 Why: Config option is there to see if gcc is good enough. (in january
120 2006). If it is, the behavior should just be the default. If it's not,
121 the option should just go away entirely.
122 Who: Arjan van de Ven
124 ---------------------------
126 What: START_ARRAY ioctl for md
128 Files: drivers/md/md.c
129 Why: Not reliable by design - can fail when most needed.
131 Who: NeilBrown <neilb@suse.de>
133 ---------------------------
135 What: au1x00_uart driver
137 Why: The 8250 serial driver now has the ability to deal with the differences
138 between the standard 8250 family of UARTs and their slightly strange
139 brother on Alchemy SOCs. The loss of features is not considered an
141 Who: Ralf Baechle <ralf@linux-mips.org>
143 ---------------------------
145 What: eepro100 network driver
147 Why: replaced by the e100 driver
148 Who: Adrian Bunk <bunk@stusta.de>
150 ---------------------------
152 What: pci_module_init(driver)
154 Why: Is replaced by pci_register_driver(pci_driver).
155 Who: Richard Knutsson <ricknu-0@student.ltu.se> and Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@suse.de>
157 ---------------------------
159 What: Usage of invalid timevals in setitimer
161 Why: POSIX requires to validate timevals in the setitimer call. This
162 was never done by Linux. The invalid (e.g. negative timevals) were
163 silently converted to more or less random timeouts and intervals.
164 Until the removal a per boot limited number of warnings is printed
165 and the timevals are sanitized.
167 Who: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>
169 ---------------------------
171 What: I2C interface of the it87 driver
173 Why: The ISA interface is faster and should be always available. The I2C
174 probing is also known to cause trouble in at least one case (see
176 Who: Jean Delvare <khali@linux-fr.org>
178 ---------------------------
180 What: Unused EXPORT_SYMBOL/EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL exports
181 (temporary transition config option provided until then)
182 The transition config option will also be removed at the same time.
184 Why: Unused symbols are both increasing the size of the kernel binary
185 and are often a sign of "wrong API"
186 Who: Arjan van de Ven <arjan@linux.intel.com>
188 ---------------------------
190 What: remove EXPORT_SYMBOL(tasklist_lock)
193 Why: tasklist_lock protects the kernel internal task list. Modules have
194 no business looking at it, and all instances in drivers have been due
195 to use of too-lowlevel APIs. Having this symbol exported prevents
196 moving to more scalable locking schemes for the task list.
197 Who: Christoph Hellwig <hch@lst.de>
199 ---------------------------
201 What: mount/umount uevents
203 Why: These events are not correct, and do not properly let userspace know
204 when a file system has been mounted or unmounted. Userspace should
205 poll the /proc/mounts file instead to detect this properly.
206 Who: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@suse.de>
208 ---------------------------
210 What: USB driver API moves to EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL
212 Files: include/linux/usb.h, drivers/usb/core/driver.c
213 Why: The USB subsystem has changed a lot over time, and it has been
214 possible to create userspace USB drivers using usbfs/libusb/gadgetfs
215 that operate as fast as the USB bus allows. Because of this, the USB
216 subsystem will not be allowing closed source kernel drivers to
217 register with it, after this grace period is over. If anyone needs
218 any help in converting their closed source drivers over to use the
219 userspace filesystems, please contact the
220 linux-usb-devel@lists.sourceforge.net mailing list, and the developers
221 there will be glad to help you out.
222 Who: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@suse.de>
224 ---------------------------
226 What: find_trylock_page
228 Why: The interface no longer has any callers left in the kernel. It
229 is an odd interface (compared with other find_*_page functions), in
230 that it does not take a refcount to the page, only the page lock.
231 It should be replaced with find_get_page or find_lock_page if possible.
232 This feature removal can be reevaluated if users of the interface
233 cannot cleanly use something else.
234 Who: Nick Piggin <npiggin@suse.de>
236 ---------------------------