[dpdk-dev] [PATCH v4] doc: alias to experimental tag for stable apis

[Ray Kinsella]

When a maintainer is promoting an API to become part of the next major ABI
version by removing the experimental tag, possibly a few releases in
advance of the declaration of the next ABI version. The maintainer may
choose to offer an alias to the experimental tag, as removing the tag
before the declaration of the next major ABI version, would cause an ABI
breakage for applications using the API.

Signed-off-by: Ray Kinsella <mdr at ashroe.eu>
---
 doc/guides/contributing/abi_policy.rst | 10 ++++++++++
 1 file changed, 10 insertions(+)

diff --git a/doc/guides/contributing/abi_policy.rst b/doc/guides/contributing/abi_policy.rst
index 05ca959..7ae7de7 100644
--- a/doc/guides/contributing/abi_policy.rst
+++ b/doc/guides/contributing/abi_policy.rst
@@ -159,6 +159,11 @@ The requirements for changing the ABI are:
      ``experimental``, as described in the section on :ref:`Experimental APIs
      and Libraries <experimental_apis>`.
 
+   - In situations in which an ``experimental`` API has been stable for some
+     time. When promoting the API to become part of the next ABI version, the
+     maintainer may choose to provide an alias to the ``experimental`` tag, so
+     as not to break consuming applications.
+
 #. If a newly proposed API functionally replaces an existing one, when the new
    API becomes non-experimental, then the old one is marked with
    ``__rte_deprecated``.
@@ -317,6 +322,11 @@ not required. Though, an API should remain in experimental state for at least
 one release. Thereafter, the normal process of posting patch for review to
 mailing list can be followed.
 
+After the experimental tag has been formally removed, a tree/sub-tree maintainer
+may choose to offer an alias to the experimental tag so as not to break
+applications using the API. The alias is then dropped at the declaration of next
+major ABI version.
+
 Libraries
 ~~~~~~~~~
 
-- 
2.7.4