From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: "Maciej W. Rozycki" Subject: Re: [PATCH 05/15] dec netdev: relocate DIGITAL based drivers to legacy Date: Fri, 29 Oct 2010 06:46:13 +0100 (BST) Message-ID: References: <1288315159-1350-1-git-send-email-paul.gortmaker@windriver.com> <1288315159-1350-6-git-send-email-paul.gortmaker@windriver.com> <20101028.212939.189691515.davem@davemloft.net> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Cc: paul.gortmaker@windriver.com, netdev@vger.kernel.org To: David Miller Return-path: Received: from eddie.linux-mips.org ([78.24.191.182]:43072 "EHLO cvs.linux-mips.org" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1751777Ab0J2FqS (ORCPT ); Fri, 29 Oct 2010 01:46:18 -0400 Received: from localhost.localdomain ([127.0.0.1]:42291 "EHLO localhost.localdomain" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by eddie.linux-mips.org with ESMTP id S1491016Ab0J2FqN (ORCPT ); Fri, 29 Oct 2010 07:46:13 +0200 In-Reply-To: Sender: netdev-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: On Fri, 29 Oct 2010, Maciej W. Rozycki wrote: > > This is not about a specific bus technology, it's simply for > > "really old stuff" so we can declutter the top-level of drivers/net > > Hmm, what's the difference between placing these drivers here or there > and what's so particular about them that they cause clutter? I mean a > mere high number of items does not cause a mess by itself -- the lack of > order might. I have given myself some food for thought and have come up with the following proposal: how about simply classifying drivers according to the physical layer they support or if multiple are, such as with the Ethernet that is backwards compatible, the newest variation they do? This would be no different to what we do wrt network protocols under net/, so drivers would go to ethernet/, fasteth/, gbeth/, 10gbeth/, fddi/, tokenring/, atm/, appletalk/, etc. (names up to debate if need be) as applicable. This would scale well, avoid the need for arbitrary decisions (is this piece legacy yet or not?) and automatically classify drivers as more or less obsolescent too, as obviously none of the stuff under ethernet/, fddi/ or tokenring/ can be reasonably recent unlike 10gbeth/. Software stuff such as SLIP or PPP could go either into separate subdirectories or grouped together under software/; I gather we have a few such pieces only. What do you think? Maciej