Re: [pkcs11] Clarifying what is meant by "deprecation"

[Tim Hudson <tjh@cryptsoft.com>]

On 1/05/2013 2:16 AM, Michael StJohns wrote:

I think this works as the process.  But then begs the question of what is a major or minor release in terms of PKCS11.  Is there any text from KMIP that might be applicable?

It is referring to the major.minor version in the document itself which is also reflected in the protocol with a major and minor version - at least in the KMIP context. That would correspond in the PKCS11 TC to the same things.

Note this doesn't mean (in KMIP terms) that incompatible changes cannot be made - they have been made where behaviours have been altered in ways which are not compatible between versions when something that impacts interoperability is discovered.

What it does mean is that if we plan to remove something we go through a process of clearing indicating that we plan to remove by marking it as deprecated in a minor version and separately making the decision if we actually will do remove it when a major version change occurs - something which we haven't as yet reached in the KMIP technical committee.

Tim.