Date: Mon, 28 Dec 1998 21:57:17 +0100 (CET) From: Jeroen Ruigrok/Asmodai <asmodai@wxs.nl> To: "John W. DeBoskey" <jwd@unx.sas.com> Cc: freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: RE: The Great FreeBSD Purge: A suggestion Message-ID: <XFMail.981228215717.asmodai@wxs.nl> In-Reply-To: <199812281443.JAA16653@bb01f39.unx.sas.com>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
On 28-Dec-98 John W. DeBoskey wrote: > 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... Sorry, this will either be very annoying as some people do a make world every day, others once in the month. Imagine looking at the warnings again and again for a month. Not to mention the extra effort and overhead this will generate. > 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into their kernels, and which they don't. Well, most of the drivers that were removed were either drivers that were outdated, or suffering from bitrot... > 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. Then I would be in favor of something on the web. Much easier to change around for all to see... > 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. Production machines almost never run CURRENT =P > 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? Now that's a more interesting idea, if it were only for the tallying of what systems FreeBSD runs on... Mayhaps adding a detailed setup as well? --- Jeroen Ruigrok van der Werven Life is the only Pain asmodai(at)wxs.nl we endeavour... Network/Security Specialist <http://home.wxs.nl/~asmodai>; BSD & picoBSD: The Power to Serve <http://www.freebsd.org>; To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?XFMail.981228215717.asmodai>