In the event a guideline becomes obsolete, it is clearly marked as deprecated at the top of the guideline, and the label "deprecated" is added to the page. If the guideline has been superseded, the superseding guidelines are listed in the deprecation message. Additionally, the date of deprecation and current publication cycle are displayed in the deprecation message. The deprecation message should use the format in the following example (if it has not been superseded by another guideline, some text will look different):

Deprecated

This guideline has been deprecated. It has been superseded by:

07/01/2013 -- Version 1.0

When a guideline is deprecated, it remains available until the next major release, at which point it is moved to the VOID section. This allows the community and tool vendors time to react to the changing guidelines in the Wiki.

When moving a guideline to the VOID section,

  • Add the void label
  • Prefix the title with "VOID" but keep the SEI CERT guideline ID and the rest of the original title (e.g., the new title becomes "VOID DCL33-PL. Declare identifiers before using them ").
  • If a guideline ID (e.g., "DCL33-PL" in the example above) has already been voided, add the number of the latest voiding after the word "VOID" in the title (e.g., for the third voiding, the new title becomes "VOID #3 DCL33-PL. Declare identifiers before using them ").

Use the Move command, which is available at the top right of the page in the Page View mode.
Revise the 'Deprecated' note so it instead says 'Void', and add the date the rule became void. Below is an example:

 

Void

This guideline has been voided. It has been superseded by

Date deprecated: 07/01/2013 -- Version 1.0

Date voided: 05/01/2014

Deprecated or voided guideline IDs should not be re-used for a different guideline.