Re: Driver graveyard

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On 02.05.22 17:10, Jakub Kicinski wrote:
On Mon, 02 May 2022 08:29:03 -0600 Jonathan Corbet wrote:
Jakub Kicinski <kuba@xxxxxxxxxx> writes:

Thomas suggested that it may be nice to create some form of a record
for drivers which were retired from the tree. I think a code-centric
equivalent of CREDITS could be a good idea.

Does such a record already exist somewhere? If not any thoughts on
creating a file storing (Kconfig, short description, commit which
removed the driver)? E.g.


K: DMASCC
D: Hamradio high-speed (DMA) SCC driver for AX.25. Driver supported
D: Ottawa PI/PI2, Paccomm/Gracilis D: PackeTwin, and S5SCC/DMA boards.
C: 865e2eb08f51

So what is the purpose for this file?  And more to the point, I guess:
is there a need for it to be strictly machine-readable?  If the
objective is to remember our history to minimize our chances of
repeating it, something more prose-oriented might work better.

To be honest I found the existence of the CREDITS file useful when
removing stale MAINTAINERS entries. A move seems less hostile than
a erasure (using a very broad definition of "move" in case of drivers).
Anything that makes people feel more at ease when I remove their driver
would be helpful.

The only practical (i.e. not armchair-psychology-based) use I can think
of is if someone is about to sit down and write a new driver they may
grep the tree for the name of the HW, and they may find the graveyard
entry. So I think listing the exact HW supported is useful. That said
as I'm writing this I'm reminded how old the hypothetical HW in the
previous sentence likely is.

I used the machine-readable format following CREDITS. I figured CREDITS
serves no practical purpose either today, in hindsight that's a bit
ahistoric.


In case something like this is wanted, maybe it should not be limited to
drivers? I think listing desupport of features (driver, arch, syscall,
fs, whatever) with kernel version and maybe commit would be better.


Juergen

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