linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH] Delete obsolete RAW driver feature.

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Message-ID: <20070321232433.GX943@1wt.eu>
Date:	Thu, 22 Mar 2007 00:24:33 +0100
From:	Willy Tarreau <w@....eu>
To:	Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>
Cc:	Alan Cox <alan@...rguk.ukuu.org.uk>, Dave Jones <davej@...hat.com>,
	Andi Kleen <andi@...stfloor.org>,
	"Robert P. J. Day" <rpjday@...dspring.com>,
	Linux Kernel Mailing List <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
	Adrian Bunk <bunk@...sta.de>
Subject: Re: [PATCH] Delete obsolete RAW driver feature.

On Wed, Mar 21, 2007 at 04:13:41PM -0700, Andrew Morton wrote:
> On Thu, 22 Mar 2007 00:10:50 +0000
> Alan Cox <alan@...rguk.ukuu.org.uk> wrote:
> 
> > > > This is a user visible API it is therefore not elligable for removal
> > > > anyway
> > > 
> > > mutter.
> > > 
> > > We've given people years of notice and _some_ applications have converted
> > > over to open("/dev/sda1", O_DIRECT), as they should.
> > 
> > Linus said we don't break old applications by removing APIs. People
> > believe him. 
> > 
> 
> That's just dogma, and not credible dogma at that.  We regularly remove
> features and we have processes for this.
> 
> There is no reason why we cannot, with sufficient effort, remove this
> driver at some time in the future.

Then a printk() on every open() should be enough. We've all been seeing
"Warning: tcpdump uses obsolete AF_PACKET"... and it finally disappeared.
It's a slow but necessary process IMHO. I agree with Alan that it's not
nice for the users to have sudden application errors without enough earlier
notification (not everybody reads sources for removal notifications).

Regards,
Willy

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