Re: [RFC PATCH] MAINTAINERS: Mark Itanium/IA64 as 'dead'

[John Paul Adrian Glaubitz]

Hello Ard!

On Sat, 2023-01-28 at 13:29 +0100, Ard Biesheuvel wrote:
> Create a new status 'dead' which conveys that a subsystem is
> unmaintained and scheduled for removal, and developers are free to
> behave as if it's already gone. Also, automated build tests should
> ignore such subsystems, or at least notify only those who are known to
> have an interest in the subsystem in particular.
> 
> Given that Itanium/IA64 has no maintainer, is no longer supported in
> QEMU (for boot testing under emulation) and does not seem to have a user
> base beyond a couple of machines used by distros to churn out packages,
> let's mark it as dead. This shall mean that any treewide changes (such
> as changes to the EFI subsystem, which I maintain) can be made even if
> they might cause build or boot time regressions on IA64 machines. Also,
> mark the port as scheduled for removal after the next LTS release.
> 
> Cc: Jonathan Corbet <corbet@xxxxxxx>
> Cc: Arnd Bergmann <arnd@xxxxxxxx>
> Cc: Tony Luck <tony.luck@xxxxxxxxx>
> Cc: Jessica Clarke <jrtc27@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Cc: John Paul Adrian Glaubitz <glaubitz@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Cc: Matthew Wilcox <willy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Cc: Marc Zyngier <maz@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Cc: Guenter Roeck <linux@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Cc: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Cc: linux-ia64@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Link: https://lore.kernel.org/all/CAMj1kXEqbMEcrKYzz2-huLPMnotPoxFY8adyH=Xb4Ex8o98x-w@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx/
> Signed-off-by: Ard Biesheuvel <ardb@xxxxxxxxxx>
> ---
>  MAINTAINERS | 10 +++++++++-
>  1 file changed, 9 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
> 
> diff --git a/MAINTAINERS b/MAINTAINERS
> index 5b74014994f5c1cc..5481967c2112e8ce 100644
> --- a/MAINTAINERS
> +++ b/MAINTAINERS
> @@ -94,6 +94,14 @@ Descriptions of section entries and preferred order
>  	   Obsolete:	Old code. Something tagged obsolete generally means
>  			it has been replaced by a better system and you
>  			should be using that.
> +	   Dead:	Code has no maintainer and no significant user base,
> +			and is scheduled for removal. Developers are free to
> +			ignore it when it comes to testing bug fixes or other
> +			code changes, and automated build test systems must not
> +			report any detected issues, except possibly to mailing
> +			lists or other recipients that have opted in
> +			specifically to receiving reports about the state of
> +			this code.
>  	W: *Web-page* with status/info
>  	Q: *Patchwork* web based patch tracking system site
>  	B: URI for where to file *bugs*. A web-page with detailed bug
> @@ -9833,7 +9841,7 @@ F:	include/linux/i3c/
>  
>  IA64 (Itanium) PLATFORM
>  L:	linux-ia64@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> -S:	Orphan
> +S:	Dead # to be removed after the 2023 LTS release
>  F:	Documentation/ia64/
>  F:	arch/ia64/

Sounds reasonable to me.

Acked-by: John Paul Adrian Glaubitz <glaubitz@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

Adrian

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