docs-rst: add documents to development-process

Add several documents to the development-process ReST book.

As we don't want renames, use symlinks instead, keeping those
documents on their original place.

Acked-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>
Signed-off-by: Mauro Carvalho Chehab <mchehab@s-opensource.com>

1 files changed, 0 insertions, 205 deletions

diff --git a/Documentation/stable_api_nonsense.txt b/Documentation/stable_api_nonsense.txt
deleted file mode 100644
index 24f5aeecee91..000000000000
--- a/Documentation/stable_api_nonsense.txt
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,205 +0,0 @@
-.. _stable_api_nonsense:
-
-The Linux Kernel Driver Interface
-==================================
-
-(all of your questions answered and then some)
-
-Greg Kroah-Hartman <greg@kroah.com>
-
-This is being written to try to explain why Linux **does not have a binary
-kernel interface, nor does it have a stable kernel interface**.
-
-.. note::
-
-  Please realize that this article describes the **in kernel** interfaces, not
-  the kernel to userspace interfaces.
-
-  The kernel to userspace interface is the one that application programs use,
-  the syscall interface.  That interface is **very** stable over time, and
-  will not break.  I have old programs that were built on a pre 0.9something
-  kernel that still work just fine on the latest 2.6 kernel release.
-  That interface is the one that users and application programmers can count
-  on being stable.
-
-
-Executive Summary
------------------
-You think you want a stable kernel interface, but you really do not, and
-you don't even know it.  What you want is a stable running driver, and
-you get that only if your driver is in the main kernel tree.  You also
-get lots of other good benefits if your driver is in the main kernel
-tree, all of which has made Linux into such a strong, stable, and mature
-operating system which is the reason you are using it in the first
-place.
-
-
-Intro
------
-
-It's only the odd person who wants to write a kernel driver that needs
-to worry about the in-kernel interfaces changing.  For the majority of
-the world, they neither see this interface, nor do they care about it at
-all.
-
-First off, I'm not going to address **any** legal issues about closed
-source, hidden source, binary blobs, source wrappers, or any other term
-that describes kernel drivers that do not have their source code
-released under the GPL.  Please consult a lawyer if you have any legal
-questions, I'm a programmer and hence, I'm just going to be describing
-the technical issues here (not to make light of the legal issues, they
-are real, and you do need to be aware of them at all times.)
-
-So, there are two main topics here, binary kernel interfaces and stable
-kernel source interfaces.  They both depend on each other, but we will
-discuss the binary stuff first to get it out of the way.
-
-
-Binary Kernel Interface
------------------------
-Assuming that we had a stable kernel source interface for the kernel, a
-binary interface would naturally happen too, right?  Wrong.  Please
-consider the following facts about the Linux kernel:
-
-  - Depending on the version of the C compiler you use, different kernel
-    data structures will contain different alignment of structures, and
-    possibly include different functions in different ways (putting
-    functions inline or not.)  The individual function organization
-    isn't that important, but the different data structure padding is
-    very important.
-
-  - Depending on what kernel build options you select, a wide range of
-    different things can be assumed by the kernel:
-
-      - different structures can contain different fields
-      - Some functions may not be implemented at all, (i.e. some locks
-	compile away to nothing for non-SMP builds.)
-      - Memory within the kernel can be aligned in different ways,
-	depending on the build options.
-
-  - Linux runs on a wide range of different processor architectures.
-    There is no way that binary drivers from one architecture will run
-    on another architecture properly.
-
-Now a number of these issues can be addressed by simply compiling your
-module for the exact specific kernel configuration, using the same exact
-C compiler that the kernel was built with.  This is sufficient if you
-want to provide a module for a specific release version of a specific
-Linux distribution.  But multiply that single build by the number of
-different Linux distributions and the number of different supported
-releases of the Linux distribution and you quickly have a nightmare of
-different build options on different releases.  Also realize that each
-Linux distribution release contains a number of different kernels, all
-tuned to different hardware types (different processor types and
-different options), so for even a single release you will need to create
-multiple versions of your module.
-
-Trust me, you will go insane over time if you try to support this kind
-of release, I learned this the hard way a long time ago...
-
-
-Stable Kernel Source Interfaces
--------------------------------
-
-This is a much more "volatile" topic if you talk to people who try to
-keep a Linux kernel driver that is not in the main kernel tree up to
-date over time.
-
-Linux kernel development is continuous and at a rapid pace, never
-stopping to slow down.  As such, the kernel developers find bugs in
-current interfaces, or figure out a better way to do things.  If they do
-that, they then fix the current interfaces to work better.  When they do
-so, function names may change, structures may grow or shrink, and
-function parameters may be reworked.  If this happens, all of the
-instances of where this interface is used within the kernel are fixed up
-at the same time, ensuring that everything continues to work properly.
-
-As a specific examples of this, the in-kernel USB interfaces have
-undergone at least three different reworks over the lifetime of this
-subsystem.  These reworks were done to address a number of different
-issues:
-
-  - A change from a synchronous model of data streams to an asynchronous
-    one.  This reduced the complexity of a number of drivers and
-    increased the throughput of all USB drivers such that we are now
-    running almost all USB devices at their maximum speed possible.
-  - A change was made in the way data packets were allocated from the
-    USB core by USB drivers so that all drivers now needed to provide
-    more information to the USB core to fix a number of documented
-    deadlocks.
-
-This is in stark contrast to a number of closed source operating systems
-which have had to maintain their older USB interfaces over time.  This
-provides the ability for new developers to accidentally use the old
-interfaces and do things in improper ways, causing the stability of the
-operating system to suffer.
-
-In both of these instances, all developers agreed that these were
-important changes that needed to be made, and they were made, with
-relatively little pain.  If Linux had to ensure that it will preserve a
-stable source interface, a new interface would have been created, and
-the older, broken one would have had to be maintained over time, leading
-to extra work for the USB developers.  Since all Linux USB developers do
-their work on their own time, asking programmers to do extra work for no
-gain, for free, is not a possibility.
-
-Security issues are also very important for Linux.  When a
-security issue is found, it is fixed in a very short amount of time.  A
-number of times this has caused internal kernel interfaces to be
-reworked to prevent the security problem from occurring.  When this
-happens, all drivers that use the interfaces were also fixed at the
-same time, ensuring that the security problem was fixed and could not
-come back at some future time accidentally.  If the internal interfaces
-were not allowed to change, fixing this kind of security problem and
-insuring that it could not happen again would not be possible.
-
-Kernel interfaces are cleaned up over time.  If there is no one using a
-current interface, it is deleted.  This ensures that the kernel remains
-as small as possible, and that all potential interfaces are tested as
-well as they can be (unused interfaces are pretty much impossible to
-test for validity.)
-
-
-What to do
-----------
-
-So, if you have a Linux kernel driver that is not in the main kernel
-tree, what are you, a developer, supposed to do?  Releasing a binary
-driver for every different kernel version for every distribution is a
-nightmare, and trying to keep up with an ever changing kernel interface
-is also a rough job.
-
-Simple, get your kernel driver into the main kernel tree (remember we
-are talking about GPL released drivers here, if your code doesn't fall
-under this category, good luck, you are on your own here, you leech
-<insert link to leech comment from Andrew and Linus here>.)  If your
-driver is in the tree, and a kernel interface changes, it will be fixed
-up by the person who did the kernel change in the first place.  This
-ensures that your driver is always buildable, and works over time, with
-very little effort on your part.
-
-The very good side effects of having your driver in the main kernel tree
-are:
-
-  - The quality of the driver will rise as the maintenance costs (to the
-    original developer) will decrease.
-  - Other developers will add features to your driver.
-  - Other people will find and fix bugs in your driver.
-  - Other people will find tuning opportunities in your driver.
-  - Other people will update the driver for you when external interface
-    changes require it.
-  - The driver automatically gets shipped in all Linux distributions
-    without having to ask the distros to add it.
-
-As Linux supports a larger number of different devices "out of the box"
-than any other operating system, and it supports these devices on more
-different processor architectures than any other operating system, this
-proven type of development model must be doing something right :)
-
-
-
-------
-
-Thanks to Randy Dunlap, Andrew Morton, David Brownell, Hanna Linder,
-Robert Love, and Nishanth Aravamudan for their review and comments on
-early drafts of this paper.