[asterisk-dev] Module Deprecation, Default Not Building, and Removal

[Joshua C. Colp]

On Thu, Oct 1, 2020 at 11:01 AM Jared Smith <jaredsmith at jaredsmith.net>
wrote:

> On Thu, Oct 1, 2020 at 9:20 AM Joshua C. Colp <jcolp at sangoma.com> wrote:
>
>> 1. All the changes listed below initially occur in standard releases - in
>> my opinion beginning the process to remove a module is a big thing and we
>> should gradually introduce it, gaining feedback from those who run standard
>> releases first.
>> 2. The first step is marking a module as deprecated and occurs for 1
>> standard release and 1 LTS release
>> 3. The second step is marking a module as defaultenabled no which means
>> it will not be built by default. This occurs for 1 standard release and 1
>> LTS release
>> 4. The third step is removing the module
>> 5. There will be a wiki page to keep track of all modules which are in
>> the process of being removed
>> 6. When a new LTS branch is created the master branch becomes eligible
>> again for changing the state of modules, a reminder can be done as part of
>> cutting the LTS branch
>>
>> Thoughts?
>>
>
> I'm fine with the process you propose -- it's roughly the same process
> we've discussed each year at AstriDevCon for the past several years.  But
> in addition to the process, I think we actually need follow-through as
> well.  I feel (for better or for worse) that most Asterisk developers have
> been in agreement on the process for years now, but little actual work to
> deprecate modules (other the obvious chan_sip and "deprecate the dialplan"
> discussions) has been done.
>
> Other than the chan_sip changes, have any other modules been marked as
> deprecated, or set to "defaultenabled no"?  Maybe there is a bunch and I've
> just missed them...
>

Not really, and I think part of the problem is that this entire thing
hasn't really been documented, communicated, or been a strict part of the
release or development process. It's been more organic. Going forward it
would be explicitly part of the steps when cutting the new branch, for
example, and part of the announcement.

-- 
Joshua C. Colp
Asterisk Technical Lead
Sangoma Technologies
Check us out at www.sangoma.com and www.asterisk.org
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.digium.com/pipermail/asterisk-dev/attachments/20201001/3122562d/attachment.html>