[alsa-devel] [alsa-lib][PATCH 1/2] ctl: deprecate APIs of dimension information

[Takashi Iwai]

On Tue, 07 Nov 2017 01:34:02 +0100,
Takashi Sakamoto wrote:
> 
> >> This commit deprecates some APIs related to the dimension information. They
> >> are planned to be removed in a development period for Linux kernel v4.21.
> >
> > IMO, the version to deprecate the feature may depend on LTS kernel
> > version.  4.21 looks OK, but we may shift it.
> 
> I still get no merit of your suggestion. Do you mean that the removal
> of ABI should be done in several releases before target LTS will be
> actually released, to produce stable ABI? If so, we need to estimate
> the timing of next LTS. However, it's hard because for recent LTS we
> got no official announcement from stable maintainers till LTS version
> of Linux kernel is actually released. At least, I won't work with such
> uncertain estimations.

The feature removal isn't what we can guarantee at a certain kernel
version.  As long as we have a real (not theoretical) user, it
shouldn't be dropped.  It's still unwritten "no regression" rule.

That said, we may announce and prepare / plan the deprecation, but we
can't define the exact kernel version in general.  And considering LTS
release is one of the decision factors.


Takashi