Date: Sat, 17 Jun 2006 10:37:31 +0200 From: Divacky Roman <xdivac02@stud.fit.vutbr.cz> To: Scott Long <scottl@samsco.org> Cc: Mike Jakubik <mikej@rogers.com>, Poul-Henning Kamp <phk@phk.freebsd.dk>, current@freebsd.org, Alexander Leidinger <Alexander@Leidinger.net> Subject: Re: HEADS-UP: removed COMPAT_43 from GENERIC (and other configs) Message-ID: <20060617083731.GB84611@stud.fit.vutbr.cz> In-Reply-To: <4493068A.30602@samsco.org> References: <3223.1150403817@critter.freebsd.dk> <4493068A.30602@samsco.org>
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On Fri, Jun 16, 2006 at 01:29:14PM -0600, Scott Long wrote: > 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. while I tend to agree you have to see that COMPAT_43 ensures in-kernel compatibility layer so there should be no (user-space) app breakage. and noone is removing COMPAT_43TTY now roman
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