[FFmpeg-devel] remove DEC Alpha DSP & support code

[Vittorio Giovara]

On Tue, Jun 11, 2024 at 3:49 PM Michael Niedermayer <michael at niedermayer.cc>
wrote:

> On Tue, Jun 11, 2024 at 02:26:37PM +0300, Rémi Denis-Courmont wrote:
> >
> >
> > Le 11 juin 2024 12:59:23 GMT+03:00, Michael Niedermayer <
> michael at niedermayer.cc> a écrit :
> > >On Mon, Jun 10, 2024 at 08:52:08PM -0400, Sean McGovern wrote:
> > >[...]
> > >> Are there any real concerns about the Alpha removal itself?
> > >> People still wanting to use FFmpeg for hardware that old can stick
> > >> with 7.0 (and fork it if they like -- that's the beauty of FOSS).
> > >
> > >Loosing security support, sounds not viable, so if alpha is removed
> > >the question what that would do to users (aka performance and does it
> > >work/build after the patchset) is still an open question ...
> >
> > What supported distribution would people even be getting security
> support from? None of the mainstream distributions support Alpha anymore.
> So if (generic) you care about security support that architecture simply
> isn't viable, regardless of FFmpeg.
> >
>
> > Also if security really is the concern, then using the supported plain C
> code of FFmpeg seems safer than using unmaintained SIMD optimisations.
>
> security wise, the risk for something like alpha is generic
> architecture unspecific attacks. The probability of an attack specific to
> alpha SIMD is
> very low even if there is an issue in that code, which in itself isnt that
> likely
> because its unlikely anyone will design an attack specific for ffmpeg SIMD
> on alpha
>

Is there anyone actively vouching for this old arch? it's not the first
time that stuff gets removed and this won't be the last.
We should really be more proactive at removing cruft rather than dying on
hills about omgsecurity and omgusers (within reason of course).
-- 
Vittorio