From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1760768AbXH1RYA (ORCPT ); Tue, 28 Aug 2007 13:24:00 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1759707AbXH1RXT (ORCPT ); Tue, 28 Aug 2007 13:23:19 -0400 Received: from terminus.zytor.com ([198.137.202.10]:55222 "EHLO terminus.zytor.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1759597AbXH1RXR (ORCPT ); Tue, 28 Aug 2007 13:23:17 -0400 Message-ID: <46D45A02.6010306@zytor.com> Date: Tue, 28 Aug 2007 10:23:14 -0700 From: "H. Peter Anvin" User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.0 (X11/20070419) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: "Robert P. J. Day" CC: Linux Kernel Mailing List Subject: Re: ok to kill "ether=" kernel parm? References: <46D45111.2040600@zytor.com> In-Reply-To: X-Enigmail-Version: 0.95.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Robert P. J. Day wrote: > On Tue, 28 Aug 2007, H. Peter Anvin wrote: > >> Robert P. J. Day wrote: >>> given that "ether=" has been officially obsolete since 2.6.18 >>> (replaced by "netdev="), is there any reason to keep it around? >>> or can it be blasted? >> That sounds like way too short of a timeline for breaking people's >> working boot setup. For a lot of people, 2.6.18->current is going >> to be a single step. > > actually, now that i look more closely at the code browser at > lxr.linux.no, "ether=" has been listed as "obsolete" since *at least* > 2.6.10. not to sound unsympathetic but anyone who tries to jump from > 2.6.10 to 2.6.24 in one step deserves what they get. :-) > > ok, that was cruel, but you see my point, right? Yes, and I think it's quite pointless. The thing is, people's boot setups have probably been that way since *long* before 2.6.9. They continue to work, as they should, so they aren't changed. This is why we very rarely break boot interfaces (and this is a user-visible interface you're talking about); we're still supporting interfaces that have been obsolete *SINCE BEFORE 1.0 WAS RELEASED.* What's the upside of changing? What's the downside? The upside is so infinitesimal that that leaving "ether=" in indefinitely seems like a good move to me. -hpa