Re: [PATCH] PM: Hide CONFIG_PM from users

On Mon, Feb 07, 2011 at 06:52:00PM -0800, Frank Rowand wrote:

On 02/07/11 04:22, Mark Brown wrote:

quoted

Since having the configuration option requires non-zero effort to
maintain, with ifdefery in most drivers, but it is used with vanishing
rarity it is simpler to just remove the option.

Proof by assertion that it is used with vanishing rarity.

Sure, hopefully if it's incorrect people will come out of the woodwork
to correct me :)

That is not a good method of getting feedback from users.

 1) It immediately removes the ability to have CONFIG_PM undefined,
    without first giving active users a chance to provide feedback.

Note that it's not a terribly difficult change to reverse; if someone
urgently does need to do so then I'd be surprised if they were able to
build a kernel but not cope with that change.

 2) The removal of that ability is not obvious ("make oldconfig" does
    not say anything about CONFIG_PM).  It is easy to overlook a
    config change that happens silently.

It will expose the sub-options which actually do stuff, though - it's
only the top level option for PM.

Would it be appropriate to use Documentation/feature-removal-schedule.txt
if this truly will be removed?

I guess, though I'm a bit pessimistic about anyone actually noticing.
With Raphael's version it's not such a big deal as CONFIG_PM is selected
by other options that previously depended on it instead of being enabled
all the time.