linux/Documentation/ABI
Linus Torvalds 8793422fd9 ACPI and power management updates for 3.9-rc1
- Rework of the ACPI namespace scanning code from Rafael J. Wysocki
   with contributions from Bjorn Helgaas, Jiang Liu, Mika Westerberg,
   Toshi Kani, and Yinghai Lu.
 
 - ACPI power resources handling and ACPI device PM update from
   Rafael J. Wysocki.
 
 - ACPICA update to version 20130117 from Bob Moore and Lv Zheng
   with contributions from Aaron Lu, Chao Guan, Jesper Juhl, and
   Tim Gardner.
 
 - Support for Intel Lynxpoint LPSS from Mika Westerberg.
 
 - cpuidle update from Len Brown including Intel Haswell support, C1
   state for intel_idle, removal of global pm_idle.
 
 - cpuidle fixes and cleanups from Daniel Lezcano.
 
 - cpufreq fixes and cleanups from Viresh Kumar and Fabio Baltieri
   with contributions from Stratos Karafotis and Rickard Andersson.
 
 - Intel P-states driver for Sandy Bridge processors from
   Dirk Brandewie.
 
 - cpufreq driver for Marvell Kirkwood SoCs from Andrew Lunn.
 
 - cpufreq fixes related to ordering issues between acpi-cpufreq and
   powernow-k8 from Borislav Petkov and Matthew Garrett.
 
 - cpufreq support for Calxeda Highbank processors from Mark Langsdorf
   and Rob Herring.
 
 - cpufreq driver for the Freescale i.MX6Q SoC and cpufreq-cpu0 update
   from Shawn Guo.
 
 - cpufreq Exynos fixes and cleanups from Jonghwan Choi, Sachin Kamat,
   and Inderpal Singh.
 
 - Support for "lightweight suspend" from Zhang Rui.
 
 - Removal of the deprecated power trace API from Paul Gortmaker.
 
 - Assorted updates from Andreas Fleig, Colin Ian King,
   Davidlohr Bueso, Joseph Salisbury, Kees Cook, Li Fei,
   Nishanth Menon, ShuoX Liu, Srinivas Pandruvada, Tejun Heo,
   Thomas Renninger, and Yasuaki Ishimatsu.
 
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Merge tag 'pm+acpi-3.9-rc1' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/rafael/linux-pm

Pull ACPI and power management updates from Rafael Wysocki:

 - Rework of the ACPI namespace scanning code from Rafael J.  Wysocki
   with contributions from Bjorn Helgaas, Jiang Liu, Mika Westerberg,
   Toshi Kani, and Yinghai Lu.

 - ACPI power resources handling and ACPI device PM update from Rafael
   J Wysocki.

 - ACPICA update to version 20130117 from Bob Moore and Lv Zheng with
   contributions from Aaron Lu, Chao Guan, Jesper Juhl, and Tim Gardner.

 - Support for Intel Lynxpoint LPSS from Mika Westerberg.

 - cpuidle update from Len Brown including Intel Haswell support, C1
   state for intel_idle, removal of global pm_idle.

 - cpuidle fixes and cleanups from Daniel Lezcano.

 - cpufreq fixes and cleanups from Viresh Kumar and Fabio Baltieri with
   contributions from Stratos Karafotis and Rickard Andersson.

 - Intel P-states driver for Sandy Bridge processors from Dirk
   Brandewie.

 - cpufreq driver for Marvell Kirkwood SoCs from Andrew Lunn.

 - cpufreq fixes related to ordering issues between acpi-cpufreq and
   powernow-k8 from Borislav Petkov and Matthew Garrett.

 - cpufreq support for Calxeda Highbank processors from Mark Langsdorf
   and Rob Herring.

 - cpufreq driver for the Freescale i.MX6Q SoC and cpufreq-cpu0 update
   from Shawn Guo.

 - cpufreq Exynos fixes and cleanups from Jonghwan Choi, Sachin Kamat,
   and Inderpal Singh.

 - Support for "lightweight suspend" from Zhang Rui.

 - Removal of the deprecated power trace API from Paul Gortmaker.

 - Assorted updates from Andreas Fleig, Colin Ian King, Davidlohr Bueso,
   Joseph Salisbury, Kees Cook, Li Fei, Nishanth Menon, ShuoX Liu,
   Srinivas Pandruvada, Tejun Heo, Thomas Renninger, and Yasuaki
   Ishimatsu.

* tag 'pm+acpi-3.9-rc1' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/rafael/linux-pm: (267 commits)
  PM idle: remove global declaration of pm_idle
  unicore32 idle: delete stray pm_idle comment
  openrisc idle: delete pm_idle
  mn10300 idle: delete pm_idle
  microblaze idle: delete pm_idle
  m32r idle: delete pm_idle, and other dead idle code
  ia64 idle: delete pm_idle
  cris idle: delete idle and pm_idle
  ARM64 idle: delete pm_idle
  ARM idle: delete pm_idle
  blackfin idle: delete pm_idle
  sparc idle: rename pm_idle to sparc_idle
  sh idle: rename global pm_idle to static sh_idle
  x86 idle: rename global pm_idle to static x86_idle
  APM idle: register apm_cpu_idle via cpuidle
  cpufreq / intel_pstate: Add kernel command line option disable intel_pstate.
  cpufreq / intel_pstate: Change to disallow module build
  tools/power turbostat: display SMI count by default
  intel_idle: export both C1 and C1E
  ACPI / hotplug: Fix concurrency issues and memory leaks
  ...
2013-02-20 11:26:56 -08:00
..
obsolete Merge branches 'for-3.7/upstream-fixes', 'for-3.8/hidraw', 'for-3.8/i2c-hid', 'for-3.8/multitouch', 'for-3.8/roccat', 'for-3.8/sensors' and 'for-3.8/upstream' into for-linus 2012-12-12 21:41:55 +01:00
removed netfilter: remove ip_queue support 2012-05-08 20:25:42 +02:00
stable perf: Document the ABI of perf sysfs entries 2013-01-31 13:07:51 -03:00
testing ACPI and power management updates for 3.9-rc1 2013-02-20 11:26:56 -08:00
README Documentation: remove reference to feature-removal-schedule.txt 2012-12-17 17:15:12 -08:00

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.

  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.