linux-kernel - Re: Paravirtualization on VMware's Platform [VMI].

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Message-ID: <20090918005808.GJ26034@sequoia.sous-sol.org>
Date:	Thu, 17 Sep 2009 17:58:08 -0700
From:	Chris Wright <chrisw@...s-sol.org>
To:	Jeremy Fitzhardinge <jeremy@...p.org>
Cc:	Chris Wright <chrisw@...s-sol.org>,
	Alok Kataria <akataria@...are.com>,
	Ingo Molnar <mingo@...e.hu>,
	Thomas Gleixner <tglx@...utronix.de>,
	"H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@...or.com>,
	the arch/x86 maintainers <x86@...nel.org>,
	LKML <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
	Rusty Russell <rusty@...tcorp.com.au>,
	virtualization@...ts.osdl.org
Subject: Re: Paravirtualization on VMware's Platform [VMI].

* Jeremy Fitzhardinge (jeremy@...p.org) wrote:
> On 09/17/09 17:34, Chris Wright wrote:
> >> One of the options that I am contemplating is to drop the code from the
> >> tip tree in this release cycle, and given that this should be a low risk
> >> change we can remove it from Linus's tree later in the merge cycle.
> >>
> >> Let me know your views on this or if you think we should do this some
> >> other way.
> >>     
> > Typically we give time measured in multiple release cycles
> > before deprecating a feature.  This means placing an entry in
> > Documentation/feature-removal-schedule.txt, and potentially
> > adding some noise to warn users they are using a deprecated
> > feature.
> 
> That's true if the feature has some functional effect on users.  But at
> first sight, VMI is really just an optimisation, and a non-VMI-equipped
> kernel would be completely functionally equivalent, right?

True.  I'm all for removing code that's got no planned maintenance and
no place to run ;-)

> On the other hand, there could well be a performance regression which
> could affect users.  However they're taking the explicit step of
> withdrawing support for VMI, so I guess they can just take that in their
> stride.

Yeah.  Different than normal deprecation since it's atop VMware's HV
which is all in their domain.

thanks,
-chris
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