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These changes match those made in the following libvirt commits: 2ac78307af docs: Clarify our stance on backported packages 78cffd450a docs: Spell out our policy concerning minor releases Since QEMU's platform support policy is based on libvirt's, it makes sense to mirror these recent changes made to the latter. The policy is not altered significantly - we're simply spelling out some rules that were likely already being implicitly enforced. Signed-off-by: Andrea Bolognani <abologna@redhat.com> Signed-off-by: Daniel P. Berrangé <berrange@redhat.com>
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.. _Supported-build-platforms:
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Supported build platforms
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=========================
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QEMU aims to support building and executing on multiple host OS
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platforms. This appendix outlines which platforms are the major build
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targets. These platforms are used as the basis for deciding upon the
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minimum required versions of 3rd party software QEMU depends on. The
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supported platforms are the targets for automated testing performed by
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the project when patches are submitted for review, and tested before and
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after merge.
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If a platform is not listed here, it does not imply that QEMU won't
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work. If an unlisted platform has comparable software versions to a
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listed platform, there is every expectation that it will work. Bug
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reports are welcome for problems encountered on unlisted platforms
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unless they are clearly older vintage than what is described here.
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Note that when considering software versions shipped in distros as
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support targets, QEMU considers only the version number, and assumes the
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features in that distro match the upstream release with the same
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version. In other words, if a distro backports extra features to the
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software in their distro, QEMU upstream code will not add explicit
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support for those backports, unless the feature is auto-detectable in a
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manner that works for the upstream releases too.
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The `Repology`_ site is a useful resource to identify
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currently shipped versions of software in various operating systems,
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though it does not cover all distros listed below.
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Supported host architectures
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----------------------------
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Those hosts are officially supported, with various accelerators:
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.. list-table::
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:header-rows: 1
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* - CPU Architecture
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- Accelerators
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* - Arm
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- kvm (64 bit only), tcg, xen
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* - MIPS
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- kvm, tcg
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* - PPC
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- kvm, tcg
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* - RISC-V
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- tcg
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* - s390x
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- kvm, tcg
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* - SPARC
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- tcg
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* - x86
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- hax, hvf (64 bit only), kvm, nvmm, tcg, whpx (64 bit only), xen
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Other host architectures are not supported. It is possible to build QEMU system
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emulation on an unsupported host architecture using the configure
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``--enable-tcg-interpreter`` option to enable the TCI support, but note that
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this is very slow and is not recommended for normal use. QEMU user emulation
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requires host-specific support for signal handling, therefore TCI won't help
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on unsupported host architectures.
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Non-supported architectures may be removed in the future following the
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:ref:`deprecation process<Deprecated features>`.
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Linux OS, macOS, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD
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-----------------------------------------
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The project aims to support the most recent major version at all times. Support
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for the previous major version will be dropped 2 years after the new major
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version is released or when the vendor itself drops support, whichever comes
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first. In this context, third-party efforts to extend the lifetime of a distro
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are not considered, even when they are endorsed by the vendor (eg. Debian LTS);
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the same is true of repositories that contain packages backported from later
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releases (e.g. Debian backports). Within each major release, only the most
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recent minor release is considered.
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For the purposes of identifying supported software versions available on Linux,
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the project will look at CentOS, Debian, Fedora, openSUSE, RHEL, SLES and
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Ubuntu LTS. Other distros will be assumed to ship similar software versions.
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For FreeBSD and OpenBSD, decisions will be made based on the contents of the
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respective ports repository, while NetBSD will use the pkgsrc repository.
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For macOS, `Homebrew`_ will be used, although `MacPorts`_ is expected to carry
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similar versions.
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Windows
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-------
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The project aims to support the two most recent versions of Windows that are
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still supported by the vendor. The minimum Windows API that is currently
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targeted is "Windows 8", so theoretically the QEMU binaries can still be run
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on older versions of Windows, too. However, such old versions of Windows are
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not tested anymore, so it is recommended to use one of the latest versions of
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Windows instead.
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The project supports building QEMU with current versions of the MinGW
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toolchain, either hosted on Linux (Debian/Fedora) or via `MSYS2`_ on Windows.
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A more recent Windows version is always preferred as it is less likely to have
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problems with building via MSYS2. The building process of QEMU involves some
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Python scripts that call os.symlink() which needs special attention for the
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build process to successfully complete. On newer versions of Windows 10,
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unprivileged accounts can create symlinks if Developer Mode is enabled.
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When Developer Mode is not available/enabled, the SeCreateSymbolicLinkPrivilege
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privilege is required, or the process must be run as an administrator.
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.. _Homebrew: https://brew.sh/
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.. _MacPorts: https://www.macports.org/
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.. _MSYS2: https://www.msys2.org/
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.. _Repology: https://repology.org/
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