Linus Torvalds fb09bafda6 Staging tree pull request for 3.5-rc1
Here is the big staging tree pull request for the 3.5-rc1 merge window.
 
 Loads of changes here, and we just narrowly added more lines than we
 added:
  622 files changed, 28356 insertions(+), 26059 deletions(-)
 
 But, good news is that there is a number of subsystems that moved out of
 the staging tree, to their respective "real" portions of the kernel.
 
 Code that moved out was:
 	- iio core code
 	- mei driver
 	- vme core and bridge drivers
 
 There was one broken network driver that moved into staging as a step
 before it is removed from the tree (pc300), and there was a few new
 drivers added to the tree:
 	- new iio drivers
 	- gdm72xx wimax USB driver
 	- ipack subsystem and 2 drivers
 
 All of the movements around have acks from the various subsystem
 maintainers, and all of this has been in the linux-next tree for a
 while.
 
 Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>
 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
 Version: GnuPG v2.0.18 (GNU/Linux)
 
 iEYEABECAAYFAk+7q8MACgkQMUfUDdst+ymjogCguo8fANFVlPWeZGeoBTL+aQfQ
 yTkAoLE0codmh+2SvhulYgyU1Wh6ZDK2
 =nJ2F
 -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

Merge tag 'staging-3.5-rc1' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/gregkh/staging

Pull staging tree changes from Greg Kroah-Hartman:
 "Here is the big staging tree pull request for the 3.5-rc1 merge
  window.

  Loads of changes here, and we just narrowly added more lines than we
  added:
   622 files changed, 28356 insertions(+), 26059 deletions(-)

  But, good news is that there is a number of subsystems that moved out
  of the staging tree, to their respective "real" portions of the
  kernel.

  Code that moved out was:
	- iio core code
	- mei driver
	- vme core and bridge drivers

  There was one broken network driver that moved into staging as a step
  before it is removed from the tree (pc300), and there was a few new
  drivers added to the tree:
	- new iio drivers
	- gdm72xx wimax USB driver
	- ipack subsystem and 2 drivers

  All of the movements around have acks from the various subsystem
  maintainers, and all of this has been in the linux-next tree for a
  while.

  Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>"

Fixed up various trivial conflicts, along with a non-trivial one found
in -next and pointed out by Olof Johanssen: a clean - but incorrect -
merge of the arch/arm/boot/dts/at91sam9g20.dtsi file.  Fix up manually
as per Stephen Rothwell.

* tag 'staging-3.5-rc1' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/gregkh/staging: (536 commits)
  Staging: bcm: Remove two unused variables from Adapter.h
  Staging: bcm: Removes the volatile type definition from Adapter.h
  Staging: bcm: Rename all "INT" to "int" in Adapter.h
  Staging: bcm: Fix warning: __packed vs. __attribute__((packed)) in Adapter.h
  Staging: bcm: Correctly format all comments in Adapter.h
  Staging: bcm: Fix all whitespace issues in Adapter.h
  Staging: bcm: Properly format braces in Adapter.h
  Staging: ipack/bridges/tpci200: remove unneeded casts
  Staging: ipack/bridges/tpci200: remove TPCI200_SHORTNAME constant
  Staging: ipack: remove board_name and bus_name fields from struct ipack_device
  Staging: ipack: improve the register of a bus and a device in the bus.
  staging: comedi: cleanup all the comedi_driver 'detach' functions
  staging: comedi: remove all 'default N' in Kconfig
  staging: line6/config.h: Delete unused header
  staging: gdm72xx depends on NET
  staging: gdm72xx: Set up parent link in sysfs for gdm72xx devices
  staging: drm/omap: initial dmabuf/prime import support
  staging: drm/omap: dmabuf/prime mmap support
  pstore/ram: Add ECC support
  pstore/ram: Switch to persistent_ram routines
  ...
2012-05-22 16:34:21 -07:00
..

This directory attempts to document the ABI between the Linux kernel and
userspace, and the relative stability of these interfaces.  Due to the
everchanging nature of Linux, and the differing maturity levels, these
interfaces should be used by userspace programs in different ways.

We have four different levels of ABI stability, as shown by the four
different subdirectories in this location.  Interfaces may change levels
of stability according to the rules described below.

The different levels of stability are:

  stable/
	This directory documents the interfaces that the developer has
	defined to be stable.  Userspace programs are free to use these
	interfaces with no restrictions, and backward compatibility for
	them will be guaranteed for at least 2 years.  Most interfaces
	(like syscalls) are expected to never change and always be
	available.

  testing/
	This directory documents interfaces that are felt to be stable,
	as the main development of this interface has been completed.
	The interface can be changed to add new features, but the
	current interface will not break by doing this, unless grave
	errors or security problems are found in them.  Userspace
	programs can start to rely on these interfaces, but they must be
	aware of changes that can occur before these interfaces move to
	be marked stable.  Programs that use these interfaces are
	strongly encouraged to add their name to the description of
	these interfaces, so that the kernel developers can easily
	notify them if any changes occur (see the description of the
	layout of the files below for details on how to do this.)

  obsolete/
  	This directory documents interfaces that are still remaining in
	the kernel, but are marked to be removed at some later point in
	time.  The description of the interface will document the reason
	why it is obsolete and when it can be expected to be removed.
	The file Documentation/feature-removal-schedule.txt may describe
	some of these interfaces, giving a schedule for when they will
	be removed.

  removed/
	This directory contains a list of the old interfaces that have
	been removed from the kernel.

Every file in these directories will contain the following information:

What:		Short description of the interface
Date:		Date created
KernelVersion:	Kernel version this feature first showed up in.
Contact:	Primary contact for this interface (may be a mailing list)
Description:	Long description of the interface and how to use it.
Users:		All users of this interface who wish to be notified when
		it changes.  This is very important for interfaces in
		the "testing" stage, so that kernel developers can work
		with userspace developers to ensure that things do not
		break in ways that are unacceptable.  It is also
		important to get feedback for these interfaces to make
		sure they are working in a proper way and do not need to
		be changed further.


How things move between levels:

Interfaces in stable may move to obsolete, as long as the proper
notification is given.

Interfaces may be removed from obsolete and the kernel as long as the
documented amount of time has gone by.

Interfaces in the testing state can move to the stable state when the
developers feel they are finished.  They cannot be removed from the
kernel tree without going through the obsolete state first.

It's up to the developer to place their interfaces in the category they
wish for it to start out in.