Re: [Qemu-devel] [PATCH] hw/i386: Deprecate the machines pc-0.10 to pc-0.15

[Paolo Bonzini]

On 10/05/2017 16:47, Thomas Huth wrote:
>> So while we can delete pc-0.12, we can't delete associated features needed
>> by pc-0.12, without complicating RHEL's ability to create its back-compat
>> machine types. Downstream would have to un-delete the features.
>
> So I guess this is why Paolo said that pc-0.12 is still in "use" ... I
> think removing pc-0.12, but not removing rombar=0 will cause confusion
> in the upstream code base sooner or later,

I agree.

> so I guess we should rather
> keep the pc-0.12 machine until we can get rid of it together with the
> rombar code. We should still mark it as deprecated, of course.
>
>> I think tieing removal to major versions is a mistake, unless we're
>> going to set a fixed timeframe for delivery of major versions. ie if
>> we gaurantee that we'll ship a new major version every 18 months, that
>> gives people a predictable lifetime.  If we carry on inventing reasons
>> for major versions at arbitrary points in time, it makes it difficult
>> to have any reasonable forward planning.  It is more users friendly if
>> we can set a clear fixed timeframe for machine type lifecycle / eol
>
> IMHO we should have a new major release after we've reached a .9 minor
> release, but so far it seems like I'm the only one with that wish...

I actually like that, but then you've pretty much guaranteed that you
_cannot_ remove anything deprecated until 4.0.  You and Daniel aren't
disagreeing as heavily as it seems, I think.

Paolo