Re: [PATCH 1/3] multipath-tools: delete obsolete information from multipath.conf.5

[Benjamin Marzinski <bmarzins@redhat.com>]

On Sun, Jun 07, 2026 at 12:38:21PM +0200, Xose Vazquez Perez wrote:
> repeat_count (rr_min_io, rr_min_io_rq, rr_weight) has been unsupported
> since kernel 4.6 ( commits 90a4323ccfea and  21136f89d76d ).
> 
> And also clean up other deprecated entries.
> 
> Cc: Martin Wilck <mwilck@suse.com>
> Cc: Benjamin Marzinski <bmarzins@redhat.com>
> Cc: Christophe Varoqui <christophe.varoqui@opensvc.com>
> Cc: DM_DEVEL-ML <dm-devel@lists.linux.dev>
> Signed-off-by: Xose Vazquez Perez <xose.vazquez@gmail.com>
> ---
>  multipath/multipath.conf.5.in | 69 +++--------------------------------
>  1 file changed, 6 insertions(+), 63 deletions(-)
> 
> diff --git a/multipath/multipath.conf.5.in b/multipath/multipath.conf.5.in
> index 84cd1a0a..e3a9811c 100644
> --- a/multipath/multipath.conf.5.in
> +++ b/multipath/multipath.conf.5.in
> @@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
>  .\" Update the date below if you make any significant change.
>  .\" ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>  .
> -.TH MULTIPATH.CONF 5 2025-09-12 Linux
> +.TH MULTIPATH.CONF 5 2026-05-27 Linux
>  .
>  .
>  .\" ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> @@ -198,9 +198,8 @@ kernel multipath target:
>  .TP 12
>  .I "round-robin 0"
>  Choose the path for the next bunch of I/O by looping through every path in the
> -path group, sending \fBthe same number of I/O requests\fR to each path. Some
> -aspects of behavior can be controlled with the attributes: \fIrr_min_io\fR,
> -\fIrr_min_io_rq\fR and \fIrr_weight\fR.
> +path group, sending \fBthe same number of I/O requests\fR to each path.
> +

For the path selectors, we know the number of I/O requests that will
be sent, and it's 1. So instead of saying "the next bunch of I/O", we
should probably just say "the next I/O request". And we can probably
just drop the "sending the same number of  I/O  requests to each path"
part of the round-robin definition.

>  .TP
>  .I "queue-length 0"
>  (Since 2.6.31 kernel) Choose the path for the next bunch of I/O based on \fBthe lowest
> @@ -598,24 +597,12 @@ The default is: \fBmanual\fR
>  .
>  .TP
>  .B rr_min_io
> -Number of I/O requests to route to a path before switching to the next in the
> -same path group. This is only for \fIBlock I/O\fR(BIO) based multipath and
> -only apply to \fIround-robin\fR path_selector.
> -.RS
> -.TP
> -The default is: \fB1000\fR
> -.RE
> +(Deprecated since kernel 4.6) This option is not supported anymore, and will be ignored.
>  .
>  .
>  .TP
>  .B rr_min_io_rq
> -Number of I/O requests to route to a path before switching to the next in the
> -same path group. This is only for \fIRequest\fR based multipath and
> -only apply to \fIround-robin\fR path_selector.
> -.RS
> -.TP
> -The default is: \fB1\fR
> -.RE
> +(Deprecated since kernel 4.6) This option is not supported anymore, and will be ignored.
>  .
>  .
>  .TP
> @@ -634,16 +621,7 @@ The default is: \fBmax\fR
>  .
>  .TP
>  .B rr_weight
> -If set to \fIpriorities\fR the multipath configurator will assign path weights
> -as "path prio * rr_min_io". Possible values are
> -.I priorities
> -or
> -.I uniform .
> -Only apply to \fIround-robin\fR path_selector.
> -.RS
> -.TP
> -The default is: \fBuniform\fR
> -.RE
> +(Deprecated since kernel 4.6) This option is not supported anymore, and will be ignored.
>  .
>  .
>  .TP
> @@ -821,28 +799,16 @@ The default is: \fB<unset>\fR
>  .TP
>  .B bindings_file
>  (Deprecated) This option is not supported anymore, and will be ignored.
> -.RS
> -.TP
> -The compiled-in value is: \fB@STATE_DIR@/bindings\fR
> -.RE
>  .
>  .
>  .TP
>  .B wwids_file
>  (Deprecated) This option is not supported anymore, and will be ignored.
> -.RS
> -.TP
> -The compiled-in value is: \fB@STATE_DIR@/wwids\fR
> -.RE
>  .
>  .
>  .TP
>  .B prkeys_file
>  (Deprecated) This option is not supported anymore, and will be ignored.
> -.RS
> -.TP
> -The compiled-in value is: \fB@STATE_DIR@/prkeys\fR
> -.RE
>  .
>  .
>  .TP
> @@ -1008,10 +974,6 @@ The default is: \fB<unset>\fR
>  .TP
>  .B config_dir
>  (Deprecated) This option is not supported anymore, and will be ignored.
> -.RS
> -.TP
> -The compiled-in value is: \fB@CONFIGDIR@\fR
> -.RE

We don't actually specify the location of these files and directories
elsewhere in this man page (except for the bindings file), and we do
refer to them by these config option names. We should probably
replace the references to these option names with the actual file
locations, and probably also list the files in a FILES section.

-Ben