linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH v3 0/3] net: fddi: skfp: Use PCI generic definitions instead of private duplicates

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Date:   Fri, 21 Jun 2019 10:59:21 -0700
From:   Joe Perches <joe@...ches.com>
To:     Bjorn Helgaas <helgaas@...nel.org>,
        Alan Cox <gnomes@...rguk.ukuu.org.uk>
Cc:     Puranjay Mohan <puranjay12@...il.com>,
        Shuah Khan <skhan@...uxfoundation.org>,
        Bjorn Helgaas <bjorn@...gaas.com>,
        netdev <netdev@...r.kernel.org>,
        Linux Kernel Mailing List <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
        linux-kernel-mentees@...ts.linuxfoundation.org,
        linux-pci@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH v3 0/3] net: fddi: skfp: Use PCI generic definitions
 instead of private duplicates

On Fri, 2019-06-21 at 11:44 -0500, Bjorn Helgaas wrote:
> On Fri, Jun 21, 2019 at 04:20:24PM +0100, Alan Cox wrote:
> > On Fri, 21 Jun 2019 15:16:04 +0530
> > Puranjay Mohan <puranjay12@...il.com> wrote:
> > 
> > > This patch series removes the private duplicates of PCI definitions in
> > > favour of generic definitions defined in pci_regs.h.
> > 
> > Why bother ? It's an ancient obsolete card ?
> 
> That's a fair question.
> 
> Is there anything that would indicate that "this file is obsolete and
> problems shouldn't be fixed"?  Nobody wants to waste time on things
> that don't need to be fixed, but I don't know how to tell if something
> is obsolete.
> 
> My naive assumption is that if something is in the tree, it's fair
> game for fixes and cleanups.

I'd prefer to move the old, crufty, obsolete and generally
unsupported drivers to new directory trees and possibly
symlink those drivers to their current locations.

I suggested on the kernel summit list:
https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/pipermail/ksummit-discuss/2019-June/006482.html

---

Perhaps a mechanism to move these old, generally unsupported
by an actual maintainer, and rarely tested drivers out of the
mainline drivers directory into a separate obsolete directory
would help isolate the whitespace and trivial api changes.