[RFC PATCH 09/10] PCI Hotplug: schedule fakephp for feature removal

Alex Chiang
2009-01-28T22:02:36Z

Now that the PCI core is capable of function-level remove and rescan
as well as bus-level rescan, there's no functional need to keep fakephp
anymore.

We keep it around for userspace compatibility reasons, schedule removal
in three years.

Signed-off-by: Alex Chiang <achiang@hp.com>
---

Documentation/feature-removal-schedule.txt | 32 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
1 files changed, 32 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/feature-removal-schedule.txt b/Documentation/feature-removal-schedule.txt
index 5ddbe35..fc3505b 100644
--- a/Documentation/feature-removal-schedule.txt
+++ b/Documentation/feature-removal-schedule.txt
@@ -335,3 +335,35 @@ Why: In 2.6.18 the Secmark concept was introduced to replace the "compat_net"
Secmark, it is time to deprecate the older mechanism and start the
process of removing the old code.
Who: Paul Moore <paul.moore@hp.com>
+
+---------------------------
+
+What: fakephp and associated sysfs files in /sys/bus/pci/slots/
+When: 2011
+Why: In 2.6.27, the semantics of /sys/bus/pci/slots was redefined to
+ represent a machine's physical PCI slots. The change in semantics
+ had userspace implications, as the hotplug core no longer allowed
+ drivers to create multiple sysfs files per physical slot (required
+ for multi-function devices, e.g.). fakephp was seen as a developer's
+ tool only, and its interface changed. Too late, we learned that
+ there were some users of the fakephp interface.
+
+ In 2.6.30, the original fakephp interface was restored. At the same
+ time, the PCI core gained the ability that fakephp provided, namely
+ function-level hot-remove and hot-add.
+
+ Since the PCI core now provides the same functionality, exposed in:
+
+ /sys/bus/pci/rescan
+ /sys/bus/pci/devices/.../remove
+ /sys/bus/pci/devices/.../rescan
+
+ there is no functional reason to maintain fakephp as well.
+
+ We will keep the existing module so that 'modprobe fakephp' will
+ present the old /sys/bus/pci/slots/... interface for compatibility,
+ but users are urged to migrate their applications to the API above.
+
+ After a reasonable transition period, we will remove the legacy
+ fakephp interface.
+Who: Alex Chiang <achiang@hp.com>