On Mon, Jan 09, 2006 at 11:03:21PM +0100, Andreas Jellinghaus wrote: > usbfs, mounted at /proc/bus/usb is part of the user<->kernel abi > and so far linux has been very good at keeping the ABI stable. > so I hope I can count on usbfs being kept alive for a few years? > > as application developer we need to wait for the new feature > (e.g. /dev/bus/usb namespace) to be available on almost all features > till we can switch and use the new one. so if there are any > plans to get rid of it soon, I'm worried that most users system > will break if it suddenly is no longer available, when the new > alternative isn't even widely deployed. > > in some discussions concerning usb/libusb/linux some people told > me to switch soon / now / fast / yesterday, and I hope that is > not true. people want to update kernel and userland independend > of each other, and many want to use old base installations > for many years to come without updating basic software packages. > > so from my point of view any abi change needs to have th cycle > of add new abi, wait long time, remove old abi, and the wait > is usualy many years (ok, depends on the number of applications > being affected). is there any statement whether usbfs will be > keept, or how long we can count on it being there and working > as usual?
It will be kept and working as usual in the kernel.org kernel. However, some distros might not be mounting it by default anymore, and if they do that, they are shipping a modified libusb that handles everything properly for you by using the correct device nodes. For example, SuSE 10.0 is like this. If you have a distro specific issue because of them not mounting usbfs by default, please take it up with them, there's not much we can do from the kernel itself. Hope this helps, greg k-h ------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by: Splunk Inc. Do you grep through log files for problems? Stop! Download the new AJAX search engine that makes searching your log files as easy as surfing the web. DOWNLOAD SPLUNK! http://ads.osdn.com/?ad_id=7637&alloc_id=16865&op=click _______________________________________________ linux-usb-devel@lists.sourceforge.net To unsubscribe, use the last form field at: https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/linux-usb-devel
