Re: Let's remove some deprecated stuff

[Thomas Huth <thuth@redhat.com>]

On 03/05/2021 03.41, Alistair Francis wrote:
> On Thu, Apr 29, 2021 at 8:00 PM Markus Armbruster <armbru@redhat.com> wrote:
>>
>> If you're cc'ed, you added a section to docs/system/deprecated.rst that
>> is old enough to permit removal.  This is *not* a demand to remove, it's
>> a polite request to consider whether the time for removal has come.
>> Extra points for telling us in a reply.  "We should remove, but I can't
>> do it myself right now" is a valid answer.  Let's review the file:
>>
>>      System emulator command line arguments
>>      --------------------------------------
>>
>> Kővágó, Zoltán:
>>
>>      ``QEMU_AUDIO_`` environment variables and ``-audio-help`` (since 4.0)
>>      '''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
>>
>>      The ``-audiodev`` argument is now the preferred way to specify audio
>>      backend settings instead of environment variables.  To ease migration to
>>      the new format, the ``-audiodev-help`` option can be used to convert
>>      the current values of the environment variables to ``-audiodev`` options.
>>
>> Kővágó, Zoltán:
>>
>>      Creating sound card devices and vnc without ``audiodev=`` property (since 4.2)
>>      ''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
>>
>>      When not using the deprecated legacy audio config, each sound card
>>      should specify an ``audiodev=`` property.  Additionally, when using
>>      vnc, you should specify an ``audiodev=`` property if you plan to
>>      transmit audio through the VNC protocol.
>>
>> Gerd Hoffmann:
>>
>>      Creating sound card devices using ``-soundhw`` (since 5.1)
>>      ''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
>>
>>      Sound card devices should be created using ``-device`` instead.  The
>>      names are the same for most devices.  The exceptions are ``hda`` which
>>      needs two devices (``-device intel-hda -device hda-duplex``) and
>>      ``pcspk`` which can be activated using ``-machine
>>      pcspk-audiodev=<name>``.
>>
>> [...]
>>
>> Alistair Francis:
>>
>>      RISC-V ``-bios`` (since 5.1)
>>      ''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
>>
>>      QEMU 4.1 introduced support for the -bios option in QEMU for RISC-V for the
>>      RISC-V virt machine and sifive_u machine. QEMU 4.1 had no changes to the
>>      default behaviour to avoid breakages.
>>
>>      QEMU 5.1 changes the default behaviour from ``-bios none`` to ``-bios default``.
>>
>>      QEMU 5.1 has three options:
>>       1. ``-bios default`` - This is the current default behavior if no -bios option
>>            is included. This option will load the default OpenSBI firmware automatically.
>>            The firmware is included with the QEMU release and no user interaction is
>>            required. All a user needs to do is specify the kernel they want to boot
>>            with the -kernel option
>>       2. ``-bios none`` - QEMU will not automatically load any firmware. It is up
>>            to the user to load all the images they need.
>>       3. ``-bios <file>`` - Tells QEMU to load the specified file as the firmwrae.
>>
> 
> This has already been acted upon in the code, we now default to
> including a "bios" with RISC-V softmmu which is what this is
> describing.
> 
> Do we need to take any action to indicate that it's already in effect?

deprecated.rst is mainly thought for the things that only have been marked 
as deprecated, but not changed yet. Once it's done, the items normally get 
moved to docs/system/removed-features.rst instead.

  Thomas