1.. _Deprecated features: 2 3Deprecated features 4=================== 5 6In general features are intended to be supported indefinitely once 7introduced into QEMU. In the event that a feature needs to be removed, 8it will be listed in this section. The feature will remain functional for the 9release in which it was deprecated and one further release. After these two 10releases, the feature is liable to be removed. Deprecated features may also 11generate warnings on the console when QEMU starts up, or if activated via a 12monitor command, however, this is not a mandatory requirement. 13 14As a special exception to this general timeframe, rather than have an 15indefinite lifetime, versioned machine types are only intended to be 16supported for a period of 6 years, equivalent to 18 QEMU releases. All 17versioned machine types will be automatically marked deprecated after an 18initial 3 years (9 QEMU releases) has passed, and will then be deleted after 19a further 3 year period has passed. It is recommended that a deprecated 20machine type is only used for incoming migrations and restore of saved state, 21for pre-existing VM deployments. They should be scheduled for updating to a 22newer machine type during an appropriate service window. Newly deployed VMs 23should exclusively use a non-deprecated machine type, with use of the most 24recent version highly recommended. Non-versioned machine types follow the 25general feature deprecation policy. 26 27What follows is a list of all features currently marked as 28deprecated. 29 30System emulator command line arguments 31-------------------------------------- 32 33Short-form boolean options (since 6.0) 34'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' 35 36Boolean options such as ``share=on``/``share=off`` could be written 37in short form as ``share`` and ``noshare``. This is now deprecated 38and will cause a warning. 39 40``delay`` option for socket character devices (since 6.0) 41''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' 42 43The replacement for the ``nodelay`` short-form boolean option is ``nodelay=on`` 44rather than ``delay=off``. 45 46Plugin argument passing through ``arg=<string>`` (since 6.1) 47'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' 48 49Passing TCG plugins arguments through ``arg=`` is redundant is makes the 50command-line less readable, especially when the argument itself consist of a 51name and a value, e.g. ``-plugin plugin_name,arg="arg_name=arg_value"``. 52Therefore, the usage of ``arg`` is redundant. Single-word arguments are treated 53as short-form boolean values, and passed to plugins as ``arg_name=on``. 54However, short-form booleans are deprecated and full explicit ``arg_name=on`` 55form is preferred. 56 57``-smp`` (Unsupported "parameter=1" SMP configurations) (since 9.0) 58''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' 59 60Specified CPU topology parameters must be supported by the machine. 61 62In the SMP configuration, users should provide the CPU topology parameters that 63are supported by the target machine. 64 65However, historically it was allowed for users to specify the unsupported 66topology parameter as "1", which is meaningless. So support for this kind of 67configurations (e.g. -smp drawers=1,books=1,clusters=1 for x86 PC machine) is 68marked deprecated since 9.0, users have to ensure that all the topology members 69described with -smp are supported by the target machine. 70 71``-old-param`` option for booting Arm kernels via param_struct (since 10.0) 72''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' 73 74The ``-old-param`` command line option is specific to Arm targets: 75it is used when directly booting a guest kernel to pass it the 76command line and other information via the old ``param_struct`` ABI, 77rather than the newer ATAGS or DTB mechanisms. This option was only 78ever needed to support ancient kernels on some old board types 79like the ``akita`` or ``terrier``; it has been deprecated in the 80kernel since 2001. None of the board types QEMU supports need 81``param_struct`` support, so this option has been deprecated and will 82be removed in a future QEMU version. 83 84User-mode emulator command line arguments 85----------------------------------------- 86 87``-p`` (since 9.0) 88'''''''''''''''''' 89 90The ``-p`` option pretends to control the host page size. However, 91it is not possible to change the host page size, and using the 92option only causes failures. 93 94QEMU Machine Protocol (QMP) commands 95------------------------------------ 96 97``blockdev-open-tray``, ``blockdev-close-tray`` argument ``device`` (since 2.8) 98''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' 99 100Use argument ``id`` instead. 101 102``eject`` argument ``device`` (since 2.8) 103''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' 104 105Use argument ``id`` instead. 106 107``blockdev-change-medium`` argument ``device`` (since 2.8) 108'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' 109 110Use argument ``id`` instead. 111 112``block_set_io_throttle`` argument ``device`` (since 2.8) 113''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' 114 115Use argument ``id`` instead. 116 117``blockdev-add`` empty string argument ``backing`` (since 2.10) 118''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' 119 120Use argument value ``null`` instead. 121 122``block-commit`` arguments ``base`` and ``top`` (since 3.1) 123''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' 124 125Use arguments ``base-node`` and ``top-node`` instead. 126 127``nbd-server-add`` and ``nbd-server-remove`` (since 5.2) 128'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' 129 130Use the more generic commands ``block-export-add`` and ``block-export-del`` 131instead. As part of this deprecation, where ``nbd-server-add`` used a 132single ``bitmap``, the new ``block-export-add`` uses a list of ``bitmaps``. 133 134``query-qmp-schema`` return value member ``values`` (since 6.2) 135''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' 136 137Member ``values`` in return value elements with meta-type ``enum`` is 138deprecated. Use ``members`` instead. 139 140``drive-backup`` (since 6.2) 141'''''''''''''''''''''''''''' 142 143Use ``blockdev-backup`` in combination with ``blockdev-add`` instead. 144This change primarily separates the creation/opening process of the backup 145target with explicit, separate steps. ``blockdev-backup`` uses mostly the 146same arguments as ``drive-backup``, except the ``format`` and ``mode`` 147options are removed in favor of using explicit ``blockdev-create`` and 148``blockdev-add`` calls. See :doc:`/interop/live-block-operations` for 149details. 150 151``query-migrationthreads`` (since 9.2) 152'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' 153 154To be removed with no replacement, as it reports only a limited set of 155threads (for example, it only reports source side of multifd threads, 156without reporting any destination threads, or non-multifd source threads). 157For debugging purpose, please use ``-name $VM,debug-threads=on`` instead. 158 159``block-job-pause`` (since 10.1) 160'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' 161 162Use ``job-pause`` instead. The only difference is that ``job-pause`` 163always reports GenericError on failure when ``block-job-pause`` reports 164DeviceNotActive when block-job is not found. 165 166``block-job-resume`` (since 10.1) 167''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' 168 169Use ``job-resume`` instead. The only difference is that ``job-resume`` 170always reports GenericError on failure when ``block-job-resume`` reports 171DeviceNotActive when block-job is not found. 172 173``block-job-complete`` (since 10.1) 174''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' 175 176Use ``job-complete`` instead. The only difference is that ``job-complete`` 177always reports GenericError on failure when ``block-job-complete`` reports 178DeviceNotActive when block-job is not found. 179 180``block-job-dismiss`` (since 10.1) 181'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' 182 183Use ``job-dismiss`` instead. 184 185``block-job-finalize`` (since 10.1) 186''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' 187 188Use ``job-finalize`` instead. 189 190``migrate`` argument ``detach`` (since 10.1) 191'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' 192 193This argument has always been ignored. 194 195Host Architectures 196------------------ 197 198Big endian MIPS since 7.2; 32-bit little endian MIPS since 9.2 199'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' 200 201As Debian 10 ("Buster") moved into LTS the big endian 32 bit version of 202MIPS moved out of support making it hard to maintain our 203cross-compilation CI tests of the architecture. As we no longer have 204CI coverage support may bitrot away before the deprecation process 205completes. 206 207Likewise, the little endian variant of 32 bit MIPS is not supported by 208Debian 13 ("Trixie") and newer. 209 21064 bit little endian MIPS is still a supported host architecture. 211 212System emulation on 32-bit x86 hosts (since 8.0) 213'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' 214 215Support for 32-bit x86 host deployments is increasingly uncommon in mainstream 216OS distributions given the widespread availability of 64-bit x86 hardware. 217The QEMU project no longer considers 32-bit x86 support for system emulation to 218be an effective use of its limited resources, and thus intends to discontinue 219it. Since all recent x86 hardware from the past >10 years is capable of the 22064-bit x86 extensions, a corresponding 64-bit OS should be used instead. 221 222TCG Plugin support not enabled by default on 32-bit hosts (since 9.2) 223''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' 224 225While it is still possible to enable TCG plugin support for 32-bit 226hosts there are a number of potential pitfalls when instrumenting 22764-bit guests. The plugin APIs typically pass most addresses as 228uint64_t but practices like encoding that address in a host pointer 229for passing as user-data will lose data. As most software analysis 230benefits from having plenty of host memory it seems reasonable to 231encourage users to use 64 bit builds of QEMU for analysis work 232whatever targets they are instrumenting. 233 234TCG Plugin support not enabled by default with TCI (since 9.2) 235'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' 236 237While the TCG interpreter can interpret the TCG ops used by plugins it 238is going to be so much slower it wouldn't make sense for any serious 239instrumentation. Due to implementation differences there will also be 240anomalies in things like memory instrumentation. 241 24232-bit host operating systems (since 10.0) 243'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' 244 245Keeping 32-bit host support alive is a substantial burden for the 246QEMU project. Thus QEMU will in future drop the support for all 24732-bit host systems. 248 249linux-user mode CPUs 250-------------------- 251 252iwMMXt emulation and the ``pxa`` CPUs (since 10.0) 253'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' 254 255The ``pxa`` CPU family (``pxa250``, ``pxa255``, ``pxa260``, 256``pxa261``, ``pxa262``, ``pxa270-a0``, ``pxa270-a1``, ``pxa270``, 257``pxa270-b0``, ``pxa270-b1``, ``pxa270-c0``, ``pxa270-c5``) are no 258longer used in system emulation, because all the machine types which 259used these CPUs were removed in the QEMU 9.2 release. These CPUs can 260now only be used in linux-user mode, and to do that you would have to 261explicitly select one of these CPUs with the ``-cpu`` command line 262option or the ``QEMU_CPU`` environment variable. 263 264We don't believe that anybody is using the iwMMXt emulation, and we do 265not have any tests to validate it or any real hardware or similar 266known-good implementation to test against. GCC is in the process of 267dropping their support for iwMMXt codegen. These CPU types are 268therefore deprecated in QEMU, and will be removed in a future release. 269 270System emulator CPUs 271-------------------- 272 273``power5+`` and ``power7+`` CPU names (since 9.0) 274''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' 275 276The character "+" in device (and thus also CPU) names is not allowed 277in the QEMU object model anymore. ``power5+``, ``power5+_v2.1``, 278``power7+`` and ``power7+_v2.1`` are currently still supported via 279an alias, but for consistency these will get removed in a future 280release, too. Use ``power5p_v2.1`` and ``power7p_v2.1`` instead. 281 282``Sun-UltraSparc-IIIi+`` and ``Sun-UltraSparc-IV+`` CPU names (since 9.1) 283''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' 284 285The character "+" in device (and thus also CPU) names is not allowed 286in the QEMU object model anymore. ``Sun-UltraSparc-IIIi+`` and 287``Sun-UltraSparc-IV+`` are currently still supported via a workaround, 288but for consistency these will get removed in a future release, too. 289Use ``Sun-UltraSparc-IIIi-plus`` and ``Sun-UltraSparc-IV-plus`` instead. 290 291PPC 405 CPUs (since 10.0) 292''''''''''''''''''''''''' 293 294The PPC 405 CPU has no known users and the ``ref405ep`` machine was 295removed in QEMU 10.0. Since the IBM POWER [8-11] processors uses an 296embedded 405 for power management (OCC) and other internal tasks, it 297is theoretically possible to use QEMU to model them. Let's keep the 298CPU implementation for a while before removing all support. 299 300System emulator machines 301------------------------ 302 303Versioned machine types (aarch64, arm, i386, m68k, ppc64, s390x, x86_64) 304'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' 305 306In accordance with our versioned machine type deprecation policy, all machine 307types with version |VER_MACHINE_DEPRECATION_VERSION|, or older, have been 308deprecated. 309 310Arm ``virt`` machine ``dtb-kaslr-seed`` property (since 7.1) 311'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' 312 313The ``dtb-kaslr-seed`` property on the ``virt`` board has been 314deprecated; use the new name ``dtb-randomness`` instead. The new name 315better reflects the way this property affects all random data within 316the device tree blob, not just the ``kaslr-seed`` node. 317 318Arm ``ast2700a0-evb`` machine (since 10.1) 319'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' 320 321The ``ast2700a0-evb`` machine represents the first revision of the AST2700 322and serves as the initial engineering sample rather than a production version. 323A newer revision, A1, is now supported, and the ``ast2700a1-evb`` should 324replace the older A0 version. 325 326Mips ``mipssim`` machine (since 10.0) 327''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' 328 329Linux dropped support for this virtual machine type in kernel v3.7, and 330there does not seem to be anybody around who is still using this board 331in QEMU: Most former MIPS-related people are working on other architectures 332in their everyday job nowadays, and we are also not aware of anybody still 333using old binaries with this board (i.e. there is also no binary available 334online to check that this board did not completely bitrot yet). It is 335recommended to use another MIPS machine for future MIPS code development 336instead. 337 338RISC-V default machine option (since 10.0) 339'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' 340 341RISC-V defines ``spike`` as the default machine if no machine option is 342given in the command line. This happens because ``spike`` is the first 343RISC-V machine implemented in QEMU and setting it as default was 344convenient at that time. Now we have 7 riscv64 and 6 riscv32 machines 345and having ``spike`` as a default is no longer justified. This default 346will also promote situations where users think they're running ``virt`` 347(the most used RISC-V machine type in 10.0) when in fact they're 348running ``spike``. 349 350Removing the default machine option forces users to always set the machine 351they want to use and avoids confusion. Existing users of the ``spike`` 352machine must ensure that they're setting the ``spike`` machine in the 353command line (``-M spike``). 354 355Arm ``highbank`` and ``midway`` machines (since 10.1) 356''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' 357 358There are no known users left for these machines (if you still use it, 359please write a mail to the qemu-devel mailing list). If you just want to 360boot a Cortex-A15 or Cortex-A9 Linux, use the ``virt`` machine instead. 361 362 363System emulator binaries 364------------------------ 365 366``qemu-system-microblazeel`` (since 10.1) 367''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' 368 369The ``qemu-system-microblaze`` binary can emulate little-endian machines 370now, too, so the separate binary ``qemu-system-microblazeel`` (with the 371``el`` suffix) for little-endian targets is not required anymore. The 372``petalogix-s3adsp1800`` machine can now be switched to little endian by 373setting its ``endianness`` property to ``little``. 374 375 376Backend options 377--------------- 378 379Using non-persistent backing file with pmem=on (since 6.1) 380'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' 381 382This option is used when ``memory-backend-file`` is consumed by emulated NVDIMM 383device. However enabling ``memory-backend-file.pmem`` option, when backing file 384is (a) not DAX capable or (b) not on a filesystem that support direct mapping 385of persistent memory, is not safe and may lead to data loss or corruption in case 386of host crash. 387Options are: 388 389 - modify VM configuration to set ``pmem=off`` to continue using fake NVDIMM 390 (without persistence guaranties) with backing file on non DAX storage 391 - move backing file to NVDIMM storage and keep ``pmem=on`` 392 (to have NVDIMM with persistence guaranties). 393 394Device options 395-------------- 396 397Emulated device options 398''''''''''''''''''''''' 399 400``-device nvme-ns,eui64-default=on|off`` (since 7.1) 401^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 402 403In QEMU versions 6.1, 6.2 and 7.0, the ``nvme-ns`` generates an EUI-64 404identifier that is not globally unique. If an EUI-64 identifier is required, the 405user must set it explicitly using the ``nvme-ns`` device parameter ``eui64``. 406 407``-device nvme,use-intel-id=on|off`` (since 7.1) 408^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 409 410The ``nvme`` device originally used a PCI Vendor/Device Identifier combination 411from Intel that was not properly allocated. Since version 5.2, the controller 412has used a properly allocated identifier. Deprecate the ``use-intel-id`` 413machine compatibility parameter. 414 415``-device cxl-type3,memdev=xxxx`` (since 8.0) 416^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 417 418The ``cxl-type3`` device initially only used a single memory backend. With 419the addition of volatile memory support, it is now necessary to distinguish 420between persistent and volatile memory backends. As such, memdev is deprecated 421in favor of persistent-memdev. 422 423 424RISC-V CPU properties which start with capital 'Z' (since 8.2) 425^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 426 427All RISC-V CPU properties which start with capital 'Z' are being deprecated 428starting in 8.2. The reason is that they were wrongly added with capital 'Z' 429in the past. CPU properties were later added with lower-case names, which 430is the format we want to use from now on. 431 432Users which try to use these deprecated properties will receive a warning 433recommending to switch to their stable counterparts: 434 435- "Zifencei" should be replaced with "zifencei" 436- "Zicsr" should be replaced with "zicsr" 437- "Zihintntl" should be replaced with "zihintntl" 438- "Zihintpause" should be replaced with "zihintpause" 439- "Zawrs" should be replaced with "zawrs" 440- "Zfa" should be replaced with "zfa" 441- "Zfh" should be replaced with "zfh" 442- "Zfhmin" should be replaced with "zfhmin" 443- "Zve32f" should be replaced with "zve32f" 444- "Zve64f" should be replaced with "zve64f" 445- "Zve64d" should be replaced with "zve64d" 446 447``-device sd-card,spec_version=1`` (since 9.1) 448^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 449 450SD physical layer specification v2.00 supersedes the v1.10 one. 451v2.00 is the default since QEMU 3.0.0. 452 453Block device options 454'''''''''''''''''''' 455 456``"backing": ""`` (since 2.12) 457^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 458 459In order to prevent QEMU from automatically opening an image's backing 460chain, use ``"backing": null`` instead. 461 462``rbd`` keyvalue pair encoded filenames: ``""`` (since 3.1) 463^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 464 465Options for ``rbd`` should be specified according to its runtime options, 466like other block drivers. Legacy parsing of keyvalue pair encoded 467filenames is useful to open images with the old format for backing files; 468These image files should be updated to use the current format. 469 470Example of legacy encoding:: 471 472 json:{"file.driver":"rbd", "file.filename":"rbd:rbd/name"} 473 474The above, converted to the current supported format:: 475 476 json:{"file.driver":"rbd", "file.pool":"rbd", "file.image":"name"} 477 478``iscsi,password=xxx`` (since 8.0) 479^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 480 481Specifying the iSCSI password in plain text on the command line using the 482``password`` option is insecure. The ``password-secret`` option should be 483used instead, to refer to a ``--object secret...`` instance that provides 484a password via a file, or encrypted. 485 486``gluster`` backend (since 9.2) 487^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 488 489According to https://marc.info/?l=fedora-devel-list&m=171934833215726 490the GlusterFS development effectively ended. Unless the development 491gains momentum again, the QEMU project will remove the gluster backend 492in a future release. 493 494 495Character device options 496'''''''''''''''''''''''' 497 498Backend ``memory`` (since 9.0) 499^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 500 501``memory`` is a deprecated synonym for ``ringbuf``. 502 503``reconnect`` (since 9.2) 504^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 505 506The ``reconnect`` option only allows specifying second granularity timeouts, 507which is not enough for all types of use cases, use ``reconnect-ms`` instead. 508 509 510Net device options 511'''''''''''''''''' 512 513Stream ``reconnect`` (since 9.2) 514^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 515 516The ``reconnect`` option only allows specifying second granularity timeouts, 517which is not enough for all types of use cases, use ``reconnect-ms`` instead. 518 519VFIO device options 520''''''''''''''''''' 521 522``-device vfio-calxeda-xgmac`` (since 10.0) 523^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 524The vfio-calxeda-xgmac device allows to assign a host Calxeda Highbank 52510Gb XGMAC Ethernet controller device ("calxeda,hb-xgmac" compatibility 526string) to a guest. Calxeda HW has been ewasted now and there is no point 527keeping that device. 528 529``-device vfio-amd-xgbe`` (since 10.0) 530^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 531The vfio-amd-xgbe device allows to assign a host AMD 10GbE controller 532to a guest ("amd,xgbe-seattle-v1a" compatibility string). AMD "Seattle" 533is not supported anymore and there is no point keeping that device. 534 535``-device vfio-platform`` (since 10.0) 536^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 537The vfio-platform device allows to assign a host platform device 538to a guest in a generic manner. Integrating a new device into 539the vfio-platform infrastructure requires some adaptation at 540both kernel and qemu level. No such attempt has been done for years 541and the conclusion is that vfio-platform has not got any traction. 542PCIe passthrough shall be the mainline solution. 543 544CPU device properties 545''''''''''''''''''''' 546 547``pmu-num=n`` on RISC-V CPUs (since 8.2) 548^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 549 550In order to support more flexible counter configurations this has been replaced 551by a ``pmu-mask`` property. If set of counters is continuous then the mask can 552be calculated with ``((2 ^ n) - 1) << 3``. The least significant three bits 553must be left clear. 554 555 556``pcommit`` on x86 (since 9.1) 557^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 558 559The PCOMMIT instruction was never included in any physical processor. 560It was implemented as a no-op instruction in TCG up to QEMU 9.0, but 561only with ``-cpu max`` (which does not guarantee migration compatibility 562across versions). 563 564Backwards compatibility 565----------------------- 566 567Runnability guarantee of CPU models (since 4.1) 568''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' 569 570Previous versions of QEMU never changed existing CPU models in 571ways that introduced additional host software or hardware 572requirements to the VM. This allowed management software to 573safely change the machine type of an existing VM without 574introducing new requirements ("runnability guarantee"). This 575prevented CPU models from being updated to include CPU 576vulnerability mitigations, leaving guests vulnerable in the 577default configuration. 578 579The CPU model runnability guarantee won't apply anymore to 580existing CPU models. Management software that needs runnability 581guarantees must resolve the CPU model aliases using the 582``alias-of`` field returned by the ``query-cpu-definitions`` QMP 583command. 584 585While those guarantees are kept, the return value of 586``query-cpu-definitions`` will have existing CPU model aliases 587point to a version that doesn't break runnability guarantees 588(specifically, version 1 of those CPU models). In future QEMU 589versions, aliases will point to newer CPU model versions 590depending on the machine type, so management software must 591resolve CPU model aliases before starting a virtual machine. 592 593RISC-V "virt" board "riscv,delegate" DT property (since 9.1) 594'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' 595 596The "riscv,delegate" DT property was added in QEMU 7.0 as part of 597the AIA APLIC support. The property changed name during the review 598process in Linux and the correct name ended up being 599"riscv,delegation". Changing the DT property name will break all 600available firmwares that are using the current (wrong) name. The 601property is kept as is in 9.1, together with "riscv,delegation", to 602give more time for firmware developers to change their code. 603 604Migration 605--------- 606 607``fd:`` URI when used for file migration (since 9.1) 608'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' 609 610The ``fd:`` URI can currently provide a file descriptor that 611references either a socket or a plain file. These are two different 612types of migration. In order to reduce ambiguity, the ``fd:`` URI 613usage of providing a file descriptor to a plain file has been 614deprecated in favor of explicitly using the ``file:`` URI with the 615file descriptor being passed as an ``fdset``. Refer to the ``add-fd`` 616command documentation for details on the ``fdset`` usage. 617 618``zero-blocks`` capability (since 9.2) 619'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' 620 621The ``zero-blocks`` capability was part of the block migration which 622doesn't exist anymore since it was removed in QEMU v9.1. 623