We should add a task to review all variables which really have been superceded and add a mechanism in bitbake to throw an error message if they are used, warning that their use will be eliminated in the next major rev of the Yocto Project. Then every subsequent release needs to have this task added to add more to the list.
Which variables have you in mind with regard to this? We don't retire variables that often...
Need more info from Dave
Hi Dave, Do you have any updates regarding this?
At the time I submitted this bug, I was told (I'm pretty sure by Richard) that there were variables which used to be supported in Poky, but which are not in common use any more because their function has been replaced with newer variables. When we keep the old variables / tasks around that we don't test and are not in common use, it's an extra load on documentation. Also there is a risk that someone reads about them in the documentation, tries to use them and things blow up. I want to minimize the stuff which hasn't been tested. I suggest you go through the Yocto Project Reference Manual and review the lilst of variables and tasks. If there are some you find there which you don't think you have seen used, then flag them and have a 1-1 with Richard or Paul and see if we can safely put them on the path to removal. I don't have specific examples in mind.
I will take this for the moment.
This will be implemented as test cases for each variable. There will be an automation testing suite covering this
I think over the last few releases we have demonstrated we're pretty good at cleaning out old variables that nobody is using. Given the non-specific nature of this bug I'm going to mark it resolved and if we have specific things we want to eliminate, we can open bugs for them (or just do the work as we have been).