Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) software stack
Software implementation of Fibre Channel over Ethernet, a data-center storage protocol that carries SAN traffic over 10 Gigabit (and faster) Ethernet links instead of dedicated Fibre Channel cabling. It serves as shared infrastructure used by enterprise unified-fabric gear from vendors like Cisco UCS, and underpins several hardware-offload FCoE drivers in the kernel.
recommendation
Worth keeping but documenting its niche because FCoE is now a specialized enterprise storage technology rather than a mainstream one. The code is still actively maintained, with fixes landing as recently as late 2025, and it remains shipped in current kernels as the fcoe and libfcoe modules that other FCoE offload drivers depend on. New FCoE-capable hardware is also still sold, notably in Cisco's UCS unified-fabric line, so removal would break real deployments even though they are increasingly uncommon.
repository signals
sources
- lore.kernel.org
The driver directory was still receiving upstream fixes in late 2025, indicating it is maintained rather than abandoned.
- lore.kernel.org
Recent "remove" activity was limited to deleting an internal helper function, not proposing removal of the FCoE driver stack.
- cateee.net
CONFIG_FCOE remains in current kernels as the fcoe module, showing the in-tree driver is still built and shipped.
- cateee.net
CONFIG_LIBFCOE remains in current kernels as libfcoe, and other in-tree FCoE/offload drivers still depend on it.
- cisco.com
Cisco's current UCS unified-fabric product line still advertises Fibre Channel over Ethernet support, indicating ongoing but niche new-hardware deployments.
codex reasoning notes (technical)
Lore evidence first: `lore_file_timeline` on `drivers/scsi/fcoe/fcoe.c` showed steady 2025-2026 traffic; cited lore URLs came from that tool. A `lore_regex` removal scan timed out, so I did not reuse it; instead I relied on the timeline hits, including a helper-removal patch that is clearly not a driver-removal series. Local `rg` against `drivers/scsi/Kconfig`/`drivers/scsi/Makefile` confirmed this directory implements `CONFIG_FCOE`/`CONFIG_LIBFCOE` and is shared infrastructure for multiple FCoE drivers. Deployment evidence came from `web.search_query`/`web.open`: LKDDb pages show the options are still present in current kernels, and Cisco's current UCS unified-fabric page still markets FCoE-capable products. Overall: not dead, but clearly niche enterprise/storage infrastructure, so `keep-annotate` fits better than deprecate/remove.