Date: Mon, 28 Dec 1998 09:43:45 -0500 (EST) From: "John W. DeBoskey" <jwd@unx.sas.com> To: freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: The Great FreeBSD Purge: A suggestion Message-ID: <199812281443.JAA16653@bb01f39.unx.sas.com>
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Hello,
As an outside observer of the recent events in -current, I have
a suggestion which will (could) benefit both developers and the
user community....
Before purging code from the system, that code should be tagged
as to be deleted, and messages at boot time should be displayed
warning the user about what will be happenning with the NEXT
release of the software...
Assuming the psm device was targetted for removal:
psm0 at 0x60-0x64 irq 12 on motherboard
psm0: model Generic PS/2 mouse, device ID 0
psm0: WARNING: this device is scheduled for removal in release x.y.z.
psm0: WARNING: Please see 'man 4 abc' for a replacement.
Basically, what it boils down to, is none of you (us, though
I am not a committer) knows how people use FreeBSD, what devices
they have configured into their kernels, and which they don't.
Those benefits I spoke of? The user community (all of us, even
you the developers) will know what code is scheduled for removal
from the system. You will not take those users by surprise when
they install the latest release only to discover that their
xyz0 hardware nolonger works.
To the developer? You now have a well scheduled date/release
at which you may purge code. Your target user audience knows the
code will be removed, and the amount of hassle associated with
that removal is reduced.
I am not the only person who uses FreeBSD in a production
environment. You have purged working code from the system which
I will now have to figure out how to replace and then validate
in our processes. Making sure new code doesn't fall over under
heavy load or stress conditions is not a simple process. I would
think that many of you with your experience over the years would
realize this.
Just my .02 cents worth,
John
ps: Why not have a freebsd-kernelconf mailing list which is a frontend
to a service which reads a mailed in kernel configuration file and
keeps a tally of which devices are used and in what percentages?
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