Re: [Qemu-devel] [PATCH v6 (for 2.10) 0/1] Document deprecation policy & features

[Paolo Bonzini <pbonzini@redhat.com>]

On 25/07/2017 13:26, Daniel P. Berrange wrote:
> This is a followup to
> 
>   v1: https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/qemu-devel/2017-05/msg02390.html
>   v2: https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/qemu-devel/2017-06/msg01286.html
>   v3: https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/qemu-devel/2017-07/msg00651.html
>   v4: https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/qemu-devel/2017-07/msg04239.html
> 
> I would really strongly like to see this documented in time for the
> 2.10 release, so that we can start the clock ticking on our deprecation
> policy and thus actually delete some stuff in the not too distant
> future.
> 
> The goal is to clarify to users & app developers what they can expect
> from QEMU in terms of feature life & any deprecation policy should
> it be neccessary to remove features.
> 
> The list of features marked as deprecated was determined by looking at
> the QEMU source for the word "deprecated'. It was then compared with
> the doc Thomas put up at http://wiki.qemu.org/Features/LegacyRemoval
> 
> Key differences with the wiki page that Thomas wrote up vs patch 2
> in this series
> 
>  - Deprecated features are given a fixed lifespan of 2 releases,
>    rather than listing deletion at a future "major" v3.0.0 release.
>    This ensures that applications like libvirt have a predictable
>    fixed amount of time to react to deprecations.
> 
>  - Only lists features which are currently officially deprecated,
>    no list of possible future candidates. The wiki page is probably
>    a good place to maintain a list of future possible deprecations.
>    To turn them into actual deprecations, a patch to the QEMU doc
>    can then be posted & reviewed in the normal manner.
> 
>  - Not listing the '-6' and '-e' args to qemu-img create. Those
>    were never deprecations, because the functionality was
>    immediately turned into a fatal error. Patches to delete these
>    have been merged now
> 
> Changed in v6:
> 
>  - Remove all discussion of machine types lifecycle since it
>    looks like they will be better kept upstream for as long 
>    as any downstream wants them (Paolo)
> 
>  - Get rid of separate "Support lifecycle" appendix and fold
>    its content into the "Deprecated features" appendix (Daniel)
> 
>  - Fix s/-monitor/-mon/  (Thomas)
> 
> Changed in v5:
> 
>  - Removed misleading reference to "major" release (Eduardo)
> 
> Changed in v4:
> 
>  - Misc typos / wording clarification (Thomas)
> 
> Changed in v3:
> 
>  - Rename appendix to "Deprecated features" (Markus)
>  - List all currently deprecated features
>  - Document that deprecated features will be removed after
>    2 releases of being deprecated
>  - Clarify that clock for removing historically deprecated
>    features starts with the forthcoming release.
> 
> Changed in v2:
> 
>  - Split into 2 patches so we can consider each suggested addition
>    independantly.
> 
> 
> Daniel P. Berrange (1):
>   docs: document deprecation policy & deprecated features in appendix
> 
>  qemu-doc.texi | 175 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>  1 file changed, 175 insertions(+)
> 


Queued for 2.10, thanks.

Paolo