Re: [PATCH] hw/i386/pc_piix: Mark the machine types from version 1.4 to 1.7 as deprecated

[Thomas Huth <thuth@redhat.com>]

On 17/01/2022 20.16, Thomas Huth wrote:
> The list of machine types grows larger and larger each release ... and
> it is unlikely that many people still use the very old ones for live
> migration. QEMU v1.7 has been released more than 8 years ago, so most
> people should have updated their machines to a newer version in those
> 8 years at least once. Thus let's mark the very old 1.x machine types
> as deprecated now.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Thomas Huth <thuth@redhat.com>
> ---
>   docs/about/deprecated.rst | 8 ++++++++
>   hw/i386/pc_piix.c         | 1 +
>   2 files changed, 9 insertions(+)
> 
> diff --git a/docs/about/deprecated.rst b/docs/about/deprecated.rst
> index e21e07478f..652a4d43b6 100644
> --- a/docs/about/deprecated.rst
> +++ b/docs/about/deprecated.rst
> @@ -318,6 +318,14 @@ machine is hardly emulated at all (e.g. neither the LCD nor the USB part had
>   been implemented), so there is not much value added by this board. Use the
>   ``ref405ep`` machine instead.
>   
> +``pc-i440fx-1.4`` up to ``pc-i440fx-1.7`` (since 7.0)
> +'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
> +
> +These old machine types are quite neglected nowadays and thus might have
> +various pitfalls with regards to live migration. Use a newer machine type
> +instead.
> +
> +
>   Backend options
>   ---------------
>   
> diff --git a/hw/i386/pc_piix.c b/hw/i386/pc_piix.c
> index d9b344248d..84f3633223 100644
> --- a/hw/i386/pc_piix.c
> +++ b/hw/i386/pc_piix.c
> @@ -757,6 +757,7 @@ static void pc_i440fx_1_7_machine_options(MachineClass *m)
>       m->hw_version = "1.7.0";
>       m->default_machine_opts = NULL;
>       m->option_rom_has_mr = true;
> +    m->deprecation_reason = "old and unattended - use a newer version instead";
>       compat_props_add(m->compat_props, pc_compat_1_7, pc_compat_1_7_len);
>       pcmc->smbios_defaults = false;
>       pcmc->gigabyte_align = false;

*ping*

Seems like the discussion about marking old machine types ceased very 
quickly ... but since nobody has written any concerns against this patch 
here, could we at least agree to apply this patch to get the deprecation 
timer started again for some machine types in 7.0 ?

  Thomas