RFC: deprecation of nve(4) in 10-STABLE and removal from 11-CURRENT

[Julian H. Stacey]

Yonghyeon PYUN wrote:
> On Mon, Feb 03, 2014 at 02:56:37PM +0100, Christian Brueffer wrote:
> > Hi,
> > 
> > for some time now we have had two drivers for NVIDIA NForce/MCP network
> > chips, namely nve(4) and nfe(4).
> > 
> > The former came first and is based on a binary blob.  The latter was
> > later ported from OpenBSD and is blob-free.
> > 
> > nfe(4) supports all chips nve(4) supports, in addition to all the newer
> > hardware.  In essence, nfe(4) has been the de-facto standard driver for
> > a long time.  nve(4) has been commented out in GENERIC since 2007.
> > 
> > For this reason I propose deprecating nve(4) in 10-STABLE and removing
> > it from HEAD.
> > 
> > Does anyone see a reason not to do this?
> 
> A couple of users were still using nve(4) in the past. I guess
> the issue might be lack of code for waking up MAC/PHY from
> powerdown.  nfe(4) already has the needed code and should support
> all known NVIDIA ethernet controllers with full offloading support.
> So no objection from me.

It seems a good case to remove nve, no objection.

Please remove at a leisurely managed pace:
  (unless code conflicts press for urgency), ie at least one minor
  release on each major branch should contain a code revocation
  warning in the manual & preferably in a src/[A-Z]*, before the
  next minor release in same major release sequence might no longer
  contain old code.

  ( Not to suggest it wasn't planned similarly anyway, but some
  changes in other areas of FreeBSD have been rushed, & it's
  good to set an example of planning maturity. )  

  Some FreeBSD end users inc.  customers barely (if even) read
  announce@, let alone other lists such as these, but some do read
  manuals, & notice code withdrawal warnings.

I informed one old customer who was maybe still using nve, others
might take a similar opportunity, a subtle way to also invite people
to look at FreeBSD [again] ;-) , referring to eg:
  http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-current/2014-February/048211.html
  http://svnweb.freebsd.org/base/release/10.0.0/share/man/man4/nve.4?view=markup
  http://svnweb.freebsd.org/base/release/10.0.0/share/man/man4/nfe.4?view=markup

It seems safe to add a removal warning in 
  http://svnweb.freebsd.org/base/head/share/man/man4/nve.4?view=markup
( there is not one yet at Rev 217468, I just checked. )

Best avoid the obscure word `Deprecated' in manuals:
  It's not common/ plain English.  Maybe a geek import, or USA
  dialect ?  It's not easily internationaly understood English.
  Best make manuals easier for non native English speakers (& native
  English too ;-).  I am British born & bred, whether in English
  speaking circles in UK or Germany I never hear or read 'deprecated'
  unless its in BSD context.  Few native English speakers I know will be
  immediately sure of the meaning, it's too obscure.
  
Cheers,
Julian
-- 
Julian Stacey, BSD Unix Linux C Sys Eng Consultant, Munich http://berklix.com
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