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| author | Ansis Atteka <aatteka@nicira.com> | 2015-09-19 13:10:55 -0700 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | Ansis Atteka <aatteka@nicira.com> | 2015-09-29 17:24:14 -0700 |
| commit | 121daded51b9798fe3722824b27a05c16806cbd1 (patch) | |
| tree | 7fb475f075086391d956f729e5c4efcff2bbca85 /CONTRIBUTING.md | |
| parent | 195360dcdca6ad930608ecad6345fefd0c994e9b (diff) | |
| download | openvswitch-121daded51b9798fe3722824b27a05c16806cbd1.tar.gz | |
doc: document feature deprecation and removal process
It seems that we haven't defined clear process on how features should
be removed from OVS. This patch attempts to document this process.
Signed-off-by: Ansis Atteka <aatteka@nicira.com>
Acked-by: Ben Pfaff <blp@nicira.com>
Acked-by: Flavio Leitner <fbl@sysclose.org>
Diffstat (limited to 'CONTRIBUTING.md')
| -rw-r--r-- | CONTRIBUTING.md | 33 |
1 files changed, 33 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.md b/CONTRIBUTING.md index 12cb7dc18..97ab9cb84 100644 --- a/CONTRIBUTING.md +++ b/CONTRIBUTING.md @@ -24,6 +24,8 @@ In particular: - A patch that adds or removes user-visible features should also update the appropriate user documentation or manpages. + Check "Feature Deprecation Guidelines" section in this document + if you intend to remove user-visible feature. Testing is also important: @@ -263,6 +265,37 @@ certifies the following: maintained indefinitely and may be redistributed consistent with this project or the open source license(s) involved. +Feature Deprecation Guidelines +------------------------------ + +Open vSwitch is intended to be user friendly. This means that under +normal circumstances we don't abruptly remove features from OVS that +some users might still be using. Otherwise, if we would, then we would +possibly break our user setup when they upgrade and would receive bug +reports. + +Typical process to deprecate a feature in Open vSwitch is to: + + (a) Mention deprecation of a feature in the NEWS file. Also, mention + expected release or absolute time when this feature would be removed + from OVS altogether. Don't use relative time (e.g. "in 6 months") + because that is not clearly interpretable. + + (b) If Open vSwitch is configured to use deprecated feature it should print + a warning message to the log files clearly indicating that feature is + deprecated and that use of it should be avoided. + + (c) If this feature is mentioned in man pages, then add "Deprecated" keyword + to it. + +Also, if there is alternative feature to the one that is about to be marked +as deprecated, then mention it in (a), (b) and (c) as well. + +Remember to followup and actually remove the feature from OVS codebase +once deprecation grace period has expired and users had opportunity to +use at least one OVS release that would have informed them about feature +deprecation! + Comments -------- |