From owner-freebsd-current Mon Dec 28 06:44:16 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id GAA06994 for freebsd-current-outgoing; Mon, 28 Dec 1998 06:44:16 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from lamb.sas.com (lamb.sas.com [192.35.83.8]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id GAA06983 for ; Mon, 28 Dec 1998 06:44:13 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from jwd@unx.sas.com) Received: from mozart (mozart.unx.sas.com [192.58.184.8]) by lamb.sas.com (8.9.1/8.9.1) with SMTP id JAA01532 for ; Mon, 28 Dec 1998 09:43:56 -0500 (EST) Received: from bb01f39.unx.sas.com by mozart (5.65c/SAS/Domains/5-6-90) id AA20344; Mon, 28 Dec 1998 09:43:55 -0500 Received: (from jwd@localhost) by bb01f39.unx.sas.com (8.9.1/8.9.1) id JAA16653 for freebsd-current@freebsd.org; Mon, 28 Dec 1998 09:43:45 -0500 (EST) (envelope-from jwd) From: "John W. DeBoskey" Message-Id: <199812281443.JAA16653@bb01f39.unx.sas.com> Subject: The Great FreeBSD Purge: A suggestion To: freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Date: Mon, 28 Dec 1998 09:43:45 -0500 (EST) X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4ME+ PL38 (25)] Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG 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? To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message