---------------------------
+What: sys_sysctl
+When: September 2010
+Option: CONFIG_SYSCTL_SYSCALL
+Why: The same information is available in a more convenient from
+ /proc/sys, and none of the sysctl variables appear to be
+ important performance wise.
+
+ Binary sysctls are a long standing source of subtle kernel
+ bugs and security issues.
+
+ When I looked several months ago all I could find after
+ searching several distributions were 5 user space programs and
+ glibc (which falls back to /proc/sys) using this syscall.
+
+ The man page for sysctl(2) documents it as unusable for user
+ space programs.
+
+ sysctl(2) is not generally ABI compatible to a 32bit user
+ space application on a 64bit and a 32bit kernel.
+
+ For the last several months the policy has been no new binary
+ sysctls and no one has put forward an argument to use them.
+
+ Binary sysctls issues seem to keep happening appearing so
+ properly deprecating them (with a warning to user space) and a
+ 2 year grace warning period will mean eventually we can kill
+ them and end the pain.
+
+ In the mean time individual binary sysctls can be dealt with
+ in a piecewise fashion.
+
+Who: Eric Biederman <ebiederm@xmission.com>
+
+---------------------------
+
+What: a.out interpreter support for ELF executables
+When: 2.6.25
+Files: fs/binfmt_elf.c
+Why: Using a.out interpreters for ELF executables was a feature for
+ transition from a.out to ELF. But now it is unlikely to be still
+ needed anymore and removing it would simplify the hairy ELF
+ loader code.
+Who: Andi Kleen <ak@suse.de>
+
+---------------------------
+
What: remove EXPORT_SYMBOL(kernel_thread)
When: August 2006
Files: arch/*/kernel/*_ksyms.c
---------------------------
-What: Compaq touchscreen device emulation
-When: Oct 2007
-Files: drivers/input/tsdev.c
-Why: The code says it was obsolete when it was written in 2001.
- tslib is a userspace library which does anything tsdev can do and
- much more besides in userspace where this code belongs. There is no
- longer any need for tsdev and applications should have converted to
- use tslib by now.
- The name "tsdev" is also extremely confusing and lots of people have
- it loaded when they don't need/use it.
-Who: Richard Purdie <rpurdie@rpsys.net>
-
----------------------------
-
What: i2c-ixp2000, i2c-ixp4xx and scx200_i2c drivers
When: September 2007
Why: Obsolete. The new i2c-gpio driver replaces all hardware-specific
Who: Roland Dreier <rolandd@cisco.com>
---------------------------
+
+What: sk98lin network driver
+When: Feburary 2008
+Why: In kernel tree version of driver is unmaintained. Sk98lin driver
+ replaced by the skge driver.
+Who: Stephen Hemminger <shemminger@linux-foundation.org>
+
+---------------------------
+
+What: i386/x86_64 bzImage symlinks
+When: April 2008
+
+Why: The i386/x86_64 merge provides a symlink to the old bzImage
+ location so not yet updated user space tools, e.g. package
+ scripts, do not break.
+Who: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>
+
+---------------------------
+
+What: shaper network driver
+When: January 2008
+Files: drivers/net/shaper.c, include/linux/if_shaper.h
+Why: This driver has been marked obsolete for many years.
+ It was only designed to work on lower speed links and has design
+ flaws that lead to machine crashes. The qdisc infrastructure in
+ 2.4 or later kernels, provides richer features and is more robust.
+Who: Stephen Hemminger <shemminger@linux-foundation.org>
+
+---------------------------
projects / karo-tx-linux.git / blobdiff