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

[Sean McGovern]

On Tue, Jun 11, 2024, 10:15 Vittorio Giovara <vittorio.giovara at gmail.com>
wrote:

> 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
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Ping.

-- Sean McGovern

>