[Python-Dev] Drop support for old unsupported FreeBSD and Linux kernels?

[Florian Weimer]

* Victor Stinner:

> CPython still has compatibility code for Linux 2.6, whereas the
> support of Linux 2.6.x ended in August 2011, longer than 6 years ago.

There are still reasonably widely used 2.6 kernels under support, but
they have lots of (feature) backports, so maybe they do not need the
2.6.32 workarounds you plan to remove.

(glibc upstream nowadays requires Linux 3.2 (stable branch) as the
minimum, but then people are less likely to update glibc on really old
systems.)

> Should we also drop support for old Linux kernels? If yes, which ones?
> The Linux kernel has LTS version, the oldest is Linux 3.2 (support
> will end in May, 2018).

What exactly do you plan to change?  Is it about unconditionally
assuming accept4 support?  accept4 support was added to Linux 3.3 on
ia64.  This is not uncommon: The first version in which a particular
(generic) system call is available varies a lot between architectures.
You'll have to investigate each case separately.