1f3478392SPeter Maydell.. _Supported-build-platforms: 2f3478392SPeter Maydell 3f3478392SPeter MaydellSupported build platforms 4f3478392SPeter Maydell========================= 5f3478392SPeter Maydell 6f3478392SPeter MaydellQEMU aims to support building and executing on multiple host OS 7f3478392SPeter Maydellplatforms. This appendix outlines which platforms are the major build 8f3478392SPeter Maydelltargets. These platforms are used as the basis for deciding upon the 9f3478392SPeter Maydellminimum required versions of 3rd party software QEMU depends on. The 10f3478392SPeter Maydellsupported platforms are the targets for automated testing performed by 11f3478392SPeter Maydellthe project when patches are submitted for review, and tested before and 12f3478392SPeter Maydellafter merge. 13f3478392SPeter Maydell 14f3478392SPeter MaydellIf a platform is not listed here, it does not imply that QEMU won't 15f3478392SPeter Maydellwork. If an unlisted platform has comparable software versions to a 16f3478392SPeter Maydelllisted platform, there is every expectation that it will work. Bug 17f3478392SPeter Maydellreports are welcome for problems encountered on unlisted platforms 18f3478392SPeter Maydellunless they are clearly older vintage than what is described here. 19f3478392SPeter Maydell 20f3478392SPeter MaydellNote that when considering software versions shipped in distros as 21f3478392SPeter Maydellsupport targets, QEMU considers only the version number, and assumes the 22f3478392SPeter Maydellfeatures in that distro match the upstream release with the same 23f3478392SPeter Maydellversion. In other words, if a distro backports extra features to the 24f3478392SPeter Maydellsoftware in their distro, QEMU upstream code will not add explicit 25f3478392SPeter Maydellsupport for those backports, unless the feature is auto-detectable in a 26f3478392SPeter Maydellmanner that works for the upstream releases too. 27f3478392SPeter Maydell 28f3478392SPeter MaydellThe `Repology`_ site is a useful resource to identify 29f3478392SPeter Maydellcurrently shipped versions of software in various operating systems, 30f3478392SPeter Maydellthough it does not cover all distros listed below. 31f3478392SPeter Maydell 327f800d34SMarc-André LureauSupported host architectures 337f800d34SMarc-André Lureau---------------------------- 347f800d34SMarc-André Lureau 357f800d34SMarc-André LureauThose hosts are officially supported, with various accelerators: 367f800d34SMarc-André Lureau 377f800d34SMarc-André Lureau .. list-table:: 387f800d34SMarc-André Lureau :header-rows: 1 397f800d34SMarc-André Lureau 407f800d34SMarc-André Lureau * - CPU Architecture 417f800d34SMarc-André Lureau - Accelerators 427f800d34SMarc-André Lureau * - Arm 437f800d34SMarc-André Lureau - kvm (64 bit only), tcg, xen 447f800d34SMarc-André Lureau * - MIPS 457f800d34SMarc-André Lureau - kvm, tcg 467f800d34SMarc-André Lureau * - PPC 477f800d34SMarc-André Lureau - kvm, tcg 487f800d34SMarc-André Lureau * - RISC-V 49*07952003SBin Meng - kvm, tcg 507f800d34SMarc-André Lureau * - s390x 517f800d34SMarc-André Lureau - kvm, tcg 527f800d34SMarc-André Lureau * - SPARC 537f800d34SMarc-André Lureau - tcg 547f800d34SMarc-André Lureau * - x86 557f800d34SMarc-André Lureau - hax, hvf (64 bit only), kvm, nvmm, tcg, whpx (64 bit only), xen 567f800d34SMarc-André Lureau 57f1f727acSPhilippe Mathieu-DaudéOther host architectures are not supported. It is possible to build QEMU system 58f1f727acSPhilippe Mathieu-Daudéemulation on an unsupported host architecture using the configure 59f1f727acSPhilippe Mathieu-Daudé``--enable-tcg-interpreter`` option to enable the TCI support, but note that 60f1f727acSPhilippe Mathieu-Daudéthis is very slow and is not recommended for normal use. QEMU user emulation 61f1f727acSPhilippe Mathieu-Daudérequires host-specific support for signal handling, therefore TCI won't help 62f1f727acSPhilippe Mathieu-Daudéon unsupported host architectures. 637f800d34SMarc-André Lureau 647f800d34SMarc-André LureauNon-supported architectures may be removed in the future following the 657f800d34SMarc-André Lureau:ref:`deprecation process<Deprecated features>`. 667f800d34SMarc-André Lureau 67f3478392SPeter MaydellLinux OS, macOS, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD 68f3478392SPeter Maydell----------------------------------------- 69f3478392SPeter Maydell 70f3478392SPeter MaydellThe project aims to support the most recent major version at all times. Support 71f3478392SPeter Maydellfor the previous major version will be dropped 2 years after the new major 72f3478392SPeter Maydellversion is released or when the vendor itself drops support, whichever comes 73f3478392SPeter Maydellfirst. In this context, third-party efforts to extend the lifetime of a distro 74fbf8c96bSAndrea Bolognaniare not considered, even when they are endorsed by the vendor (eg. Debian LTS); 75fbf8c96bSAndrea Bolognanithe same is true of repositories that contain packages backported from later 76fbf8c96bSAndrea Bolognanireleases (e.g. Debian backports). Within each major release, only the most 77fbf8c96bSAndrea Bolognanirecent minor release is considered. 78f3478392SPeter Maydell 79f3478392SPeter MaydellFor the purposes of identifying supported software versions available on Linux, 80f3478392SPeter Maydellthe project will look at CentOS, Debian, Fedora, openSUSE, RHEL, SLES and 81f3478392SPeter MaydellUbuntu LTS. Other distros will be assumed to ship similar software versions. 82f3478392SPeter Maydell 83f3478392SPeter MaydellFor FreeBSD and OpenBSD, decisions will be made based on the contents of the 84f3478392SPeter Maydellrespective ports repository, while NetBSD will use the pkgsrc repository. 85f3478392SPeter Maydell 864a89bf18SStefan WeilFor macOS, `Homebrew`_ will be used, although `MacPorts`_ is expected to carry 87f3478392SPeter Maydellsimilar versions. 88f3478392SPeter Maydell 89f3478392SPeter MaydellWindows 90f3478392SPeter Maydell------- 91f3478392SPeter Maydell 920ce9b08cSThomas HuthThe project aims to support the two most recent versions of Windows that are 930ce9b08cSThomas Huthstill supported by the vendor. The minimum Windows API that is currently 94cf60ccc3SAkihiko Odakitargeted is "Windows 8", so theoretically the QEMU binaries can still be run 950ce9b08cSThomas Huthon older versions of Windows, too. However, such old versions of Windows are 960ce9b08cSThomas Huthnot tested anymore, so it is recommended to use one of the latest versions of 970ce9b08cSThomas HuthWindows instead. 98f3478392SPeter Maydell 990ce9b08cSThomas HuthThe project supports building QEMU with current versions of the MinGW 100b67de91eSBin Mengtoolchain, either hosted on Linux (Debian/Fedora) or via `MSYS2`_ on Windows. 101b67de91eSBin MengA more recent Windows version is always preferred as it is less likely to have 102b67de91eSBin Mengproblems with building via MSYS2. The building process of QEMU involves some 103b67de91eSBin MengPython scripts that call os.symlink() which needs special attention for the 104b67de91eSBin Mengbuild process to successfully complete. On newer versions of Windows 10, 105b67de91eSBin Mengunprivileged accounts can create symlinks if Developer Mode is enabled. 106b67de91eSBin MengWhen Developer Mode is not available/enabled, the SeCreateSymbolicLinkPrivilege 107b67de91eSBin Mengprivilege is required, or the process must be run as an administrator. 108f3478392SPeter Maydell 1094a89bf18SStefan Weil.. _Homebrew: https://brew.sh/ 110f3478392SPeter Maydell.. _MacPorts: https://www.macports.org/ 111b67de91eSBin Meng.. _MSYS2: https://www.msys2.org/ 112f3478392SPeter Maydell.. _Repology: https://repology.org/ 113