From owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Jun 16 19:29:31 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: current@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 072FB16A47E for ; Fri, 16 Jun 2006 19:29:31 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from scottl@samsco.org) Received: from pooker.samsco.org (pooker.samsco.org [168.103.85.57]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 29D2043D5D for ; Fri, 16 Jun 2006 19:29:23 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from scottl@samsco.org) Received: from [192.168.254.14] (imini.samsco.home [192.168.254.14]) (authenticated bits=0) by pooker.samsco.org (8.13.4/8.13.4) with ESMTP id k5GJTEkW039080; Fri, 16 Jun 2006 13:29:20 -0600 (MDT) (envelope-from scottl@samsco.org) Message-ID: <4493068A.30602@samsco.org> Date: Fri, 16 Jun 2006 13:29:14 -0600 From: Scott Long User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X Mach-O; en-US; rv:1.7.7) Gecko/20050416 X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Poul-Henning Kamp References: <3223.1150403817@critter.freebsd.dk> In-Reply-To: <3223.1150403817@critter.freebsd.dk> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.4 required=3.8 tests=ALL_TRUSTED autolearn=failed version=3.1.1 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.1.1 (2006-03-10) on pooker.samsco.org Cc: Mike Jakubik , current@freebsd.org, Alexander Leidinger Subject: Re: HEADS-UP: removed COMPAT_43 from GENERIC (and other configs) X-BeenThere: freebsd-current@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussions about the use of FreeBSD-current List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 16 Jun 2006 19:29:31 -0000 Poul-Henning Kamp wrote: > In message <4491C2F0.6000007@rogers.com>, Mike Jakubik writes: > > >>What about COMPAT_43TTY? Is this still needed, how exactly does it >>affect the system? > > > It adds a bunch of ancient-compatible ioctls to the kernel. > > It is, as a principle, not needed, but thanks to the many variants > of "sh configure" employed in usr/ports, a quite large number of > ports go "Ohh, this is BSD, I'd better use the old ioctls" and > break if you don't offer them. > One thing to keep in mind is that upgrade compatibility is very important. Not everyone lives at the tip of the tree, and not everyone wants to, or even can, recompile all of their apps for an upgrade. Making COMPAT_43 and COMPAT_43TTY be optional is fine, and fixing as many ports as possible not to rely on it is fine too, but removing the options from the kernel will be a mistake right now. People were running 2.2.x apps well into the 4.x lifecycle, and people are running 4.x apps now well into the 6.x lifecycle. If you make their lives harder, you'll make it a lot easier to justify switching to something else. If you want to deprecate and ultimately removethese options, set a 2-3 year timeline for it, and heavily advertise it. Anything shorter will do more harm than good. Scott