"Daniel P. Berrange" <berra...@redhat.com> writes: > On Wed, Mar 08, 2017 at 12:22:24PM +0100, Thomas Huth wrote: >> On 08.03.2017 11:03, Peter Maydell wrote: >> > On 8 March 2017 at 09:26, Thomas Huth <th...@redhat.com> wrote: >> >> But anyway, the more important thing that keeps me concerned is: Someone >> >> once told me that we should get rid of old parameters and interfaces >> >> (like HMP commands) primarily only when we're changing to a new major >> >> version number. As you all know, QEMU has a lot of legacy options, which >> >> are likely rather confusing than helpful for the new users nowadays, >> >> e.g. things like the "-net channel" option (which is fortunately even >> >> hardly documented), but maybe also even the whole vlan/hub concept in >> >> the net code, or legacy parameters like "-usbdevice". If we switch to >> >> version 3.0, could we agree to remove at least some of them? >> > >> > I think if we are going to deprecate and remove options we need >> > a clear transition plan for doing so, which means at least one >> > release where options are "still works, but warn that they >> > are going away with pointer to documentation or similar info >> > about their replacement syntax", before actually dropping them. >> >> Yes, that's certainly a good idea. But as Daniel suggested in his mail, >> I think we should also have the rule that the option should be marked as >> deprecated in multiple releases first - so that the users have a chance >> to speak up before something gets really removed (otherwise the option >> could be removed right on the first day after the initial release with >> the deprecation message, so there is no time for the user to notice this >> and complain). Not sure whether we need three releases, as Daniel >> suggested, though, but if that's common sense, that's fine for me, too. > > FYI, I didn't put any thought into my 3 releases / 12 months numbers. I > just arbitrarily picked them out of the hat, so don't consider it my > endorsement of that particular length of time :-) I think 2 is the minimum > number of releases we should deprecate for, beyond that, I'm open minded
I don't think a hard rule for the grace period makes sense. It really depends. A guideline like "normally 12 months" is of course fine.
