[Buildroot] [PATCH] Add feature removal schedule for deprecated features

[Thomas De Schampheleire]

This patch adds a new file feature-removal-schedule.txt that lists the
deprecated features in buildroot, and from when they can be removed.

The guideline used is that a deprecated feature will remain available for
four buildroot releases before it can be removed. For example if a feature
is deprecated in the context of 2013.05, it is still available in 2013.05,
2013.08, 2013.11 and 2014.02. It can then be removed from 2014.05 onwards.

When additional config options are deprecated (for example kernel headers,
packages, ...) they should be added to the list. When deprecated items are
removed, they should be removed from the list.

Signed-off-by: Thomas De Schampheleire <thomas.de.schampheleire at gmail.com>

---
 docs/manual/appendix.txt     |   6 +++-
 feature-removal-schedule.txt |  52 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 57 insertions(+), 1 deletions(-)


This guideline, and the initial list of deprecated features with the date
they were deprecated, was taken from Arnout Vandecappelle's input in [1]
(thanks!). The list was updated with the deprecated mips architectures.

[1] http://lists.busybox.net/pipermail/buildroot/2013-November/083024.html

diff --git a/docs/manual/appendix.txt b/docs/manual/appendix.txt
--- a/docs/manual/appendix.txt
+++ b/docs/manual/appendix.txt
@@ -29,6 +29,10 @@ Deprecated features
 -------------------
 
 The following features are marked as _deprecated_ in Buildroot due to
-their status either too old or unmaintained.
+them being either too old or unmaintained. They will be removed at
+some point (no earlier than a year after deprecation) so you should
+stop using them. Refer to file +feature-removal-schedule.txt+
+in the Buildroot sources for an indication of when these features can
+be removed.
 
 include::deprecated-list.txt[]
diff --git a/feature-removal-schedule.txt b/feature-removal-schedule.txt
new file mode 100644
--- /dev/null
+++ b/feature-removal-schedule.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,52 @@
+This file contains a list of deprecated features/packages in buildroot, and when
+they were deprecated. In general, deprecated features will remain available for
+at least four buildroot releases (one year). After this time, no guarantees are
+made.
+
+Note that several features/packages have been deprecated for a long time and
+should have been removed right now. Expect this to be corrected soon.
+
+
+To be removed in 2011.05:
+BR2_PACKAGE_SQUASHFS3
+BR2_TARGET_ROOTFS_SQUASHFS3
+
+To be removed in 2011.11:
+BR2_PACKAGE_LZMA
+
+To be removed in 2013.05:
+BR2_PACKAGE_TTCP
+
+To be removed in 2013.11:
+BR2_HAVE_DOCUMENTATION
+BR2_PACKAGE_PKG_CONFIG
+BR2_PACKAGE_NETKITBASE
+BR2_PACKAGE_NETKITTELNET
+BR2_PACKAGE_AUTOCONF
+BR2_PACKAGE_AUTOMAKE
+
+To be removed in 2014.02:
+BR2_KERNEL_HEADERS_3_1
+BR2_KERNEL_HEADERS_3_3
+BR2_KERNEL_HEADERS_3_5
+BR2_PACKAGE_CCACHE
+BR2_PACKAGE_XSTROKE
+BR2_GDB_VERSION_7_2
+BR2_GDB_VERSION_7_3
+
+To be removed in 2014.05:
+BR2_KERNEL_HEADERS_3_6
+BR2_KERNEL_HEADERS_3_7
+BR2_PACKAGE_VALA
+
+To be removed in 2014.08:
+BR2_KERNEL_HEADERS_3_8
+
+To be removed in 2014.11:
+BR2_KERNEL_HEADERS_3_9
+BR2_INSTALL_FORTRAN
+BR2_INSTALL_OBJC
+BR2_mips_1
+BR2_mips_2
+BR2_mips_3
+BR2_mips_4