From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from smtp.kernel.org (aws-us-west-2-korg-mail-1.web.codeaurora.org [10.30.226.201]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by smtp.subspace.kernel.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id D007D28151E for ; Tue, 26 Aug 2025 20:28:17 +0000 (UTC) Authentication-Results: smtp.subspace.kernel.org; arc=none smtp.client-ip=10.30.226.201 ARC-Seal:i=1; a=rsa-sha256; d=subspace.kernel.org; s=arc-20240116; t=1756240097; cv=none; b=qokmJ2wotikTUUv5vDYbRIA3LByAosyPw04ZaPjPDxfjfnjFw5NIarX6BLJaO7mC/2lX2aKaO/tgglgZUZrqSN9s3gVWz71Y7lIhTh+0Anfxi7jgmgQscFI6GN7AKlboIrNJhdpGkODMMaYkLIWfKFHwRroerPbmMuZMSaatoo0= ARC-Message-Signature:i=1; a=rsa-sha256; d=subspace.kernel.org; s=arc-20240116; t=1756240097; c=relaxed/simple; bh=GjCmdhDnmLRbnAkYKEMK99YEon6EHLCcKM1znpF621k=; h=Date:From:To:cc:Subject:In-Reply-To:Message-ID:References: MIME-Version:Content-Type; b=AaeNHQL2k4bNv9m6ZUNICDqG+fycux5pvzByqjF9fFtloDsjL7C+IrnJ9eWQP4J7lqh7jxI3Owrf3Smc1ldvcdC8kUauD05Mi+I9r9HmlEiGbMiY19+LK3nDAL6/N3IsDqqgim+MnOj+cu67LG+EVx+kPmM+PFRJg+slBT/KXzE= ARC-Authentication-Results:i=1; smtp.subspace.kernel.org; dkim=pass (2048-bit key) header.d=kernel.org header.i=@kernel.org header.b=E+DZRx7n; arc=none smtp.client-ip=10.30.226.201 Authentication-Results: smtp.subspace.kernel.org; dkim=pass (2048-bit key) header.d=kernel.org header.i=@kernel.org header.b="E+DZRx7n" Received: by smtp.kernel.org (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id EEFADC4CEF1; Tue, 26 Aug 2025 20:28:16 +0000 (UTC) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/simple; d=kernel.org; s=k20201202; t=1756240097; bh=GjCmdhDnmLRbnAkYKEMK99YEon6EHLCcKM1znpF621k=; h=Date:From:To:cc:Subject:In-Reply-To:References:From; b=E+DZRx7nd3UTcie2pYM81hFwS8SAZbr3z7G5GF5U7+f6UV4ExTIvkbtCBPmIj5fyD pyCiTBeAe2LuXx9WV/06kgxeEInseRG2DGt6+19uPueuc4E+/fS06wbRs2BrFlsmow meGcyn3ufwYuFYqGZuwSt6sL6LtkppTKIPliVMyLAAfZfbU+ZxDjtTJjwsHJO7R/Pb WxqG6tVmguBoSrdp78r/WLgI05J+A4PpPeAZvxjb0rhCXGIbPXGHUKMr249sVXFaOX +Bs7AoHV9ndE7Ef3Bg7rq3y/ihjbnp/yUpJQYEHDbmm/OxcEmgk8TpXZjFCvakQij2 Reci0fevdWyag== Date: Tue, 26 Aug 2025 22:28:14 +0200 (CEST) From: Jiri Kosina To: Linus Torvalds cc: Bartosz Golaszewski , ksummit@lists.linux.dev Subject: Re: [MAINTAINER SUMMIT] Enforcing API deprecation In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <536or9s2-r219-2854-2n7s-q299s7q7noq9@xreary.bet> References: Precedence: bulk X-Mailing-List: ksummit@lists.linux.dev List-Id: List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-7 Content-Transfer-Encoding: QUOTED-PRINTABLE On Tue, 26 Aug 2025, Linus Torvalds wrote: > > I would like to propose a discussion on how to enforce API deprecation > > in a way that supports efforts to reduce technical debt, without being > > hampered by developers and maintainers who mean no harm but simply > > don=A2t know any better. >=20 > Here's the only thing that works: if you change the API, you have to > fix up all existing users. >=20 > If you are not willing to fix up all existing users, and you introduce > a parallel API, then you are the one that maintains both the old and > the new API forever. I don't disagree, I just feel that it's important to note that it's pretty= =20 much impossible to do a proper functional testing of many such=20 conversions. Especially when drivers are involved on the consuming side. Even more so=20 if obscure ones (which is quite often the case in driver space). But yes, if there are people who do care about such drivers, they will=20 speak up once they get hit by the breakage, so it's not a huge problem=20 either. --=20 Jiri Kosina SUSE Labs