xref: /openbmc/qemu/docs/user/main.rst (revision a9a5c473)
1QEMU User space emulator
2========================
3
4Supported Operating Systems
5---------------------------
6
7The following OS are supported in user space emulation:
8
9-  Linux (referred as qemu-linux-user)
10
11-  BSD (referred as qemu-bsd-user)
12
13Features
14--------
15
16QEMU user space emulation has the following notable features:
17
18**System call translation:**
19   QEMU includes a generic system call translator. This means that the
20   parameters of the system calls can be converted to fix endianness and
21   32/64-bit mismatches between hosts and targets. IOCTLs can be
22   converted too.
23
24**POSIX signal handling:**
25   QEMU can redirect to the running program all signals coming from the
26   host (such as ``SIGALRM``), as well as synthesize signals from
27   virtual CPU exceptions (for example ``SIGFPE`` when the program
28   executes a division by zero).
29
30   QEMU relies on the host kernel to emulate most signal system calls,
31   for example to emulate the signal mask. On Linux, QEMU supports both
32   normal and real-time signals.
33
34**Threading:**
35   On Linux, QEMU can emulate the ``clone`` syscall and create a real
36   host thread (with a separate virtual CPU) for each emulated thread.
37   Note that not all targets currently emulate atomic operations
38   correctly. x86 and Arm use a global lock in order to preserve their
39   semantics.
40
41QEMU was conceived so that ultimately it can emulate itself. Although it
42is not very useful, it is an important test to show the power of the
43emulator.
44
45Linux User space emulator
46-------------------------
47
48Quick Start
49~~~~~~~~~~~
50
51In order to launch a Linux process, QEMU needs the process executable
52itself and all the target (x86) dynamic libraries used by it.
53
54-  On x86, you can just try to launch any process by using the native
55   libraries::
56
57      qemu-i386 -L / /bin/ls
58
59   ``-L /`` tells that the x86 dynamic linker must be searched with a
60   ``/`` prefix.
61
62-  Since QEMU is also a linux process, you can launch QEMU with QEMU
63   (NOTE: you can only do that if you compiled QEMU from the sources)::
64
65      qemu-i386 -L / qemu-i386 -L / /bin/ls
66
67-  On non x86 CPUs, you need first to download at least an x86 glibc
68   (``qemu-runtime-i386-XXX-.tar.gz`` on the QEMU web page). Ensure that
69   ``LD_LIBRARY_PATH`` is not set::
70
71      unset LD_LIBRARY_PATH
72
73   Then you can launch the precompiled ``ls`` x86 executable::
74
75      qemu-i386 tests/i386/ls
76
77   You can look at ``scripts/qemu-binfmt-conf.sh`` so that QEMU is
78   automatically launched by the Linux kernel when you try to launch x86
79   executables. It requires the ``binfmt_misc`` module in the Linux
80   kernel.
81
82-  The x86 version of QEMU is also included. You can try weird things
83   such as::
84
85      qemu-i386 /usr/local/qemu-i386/bin/qemu-i386 \
86                /usr/local/qemu-i386/bin/ls-i386
87
88Wine launch
89~~~~~~~~~~~
90
91-  Ensure that you have a working QEMU with the x86 glibc distribution
92   (see previous section). In order to verify it, you must be able to
93   do::
94
95      qemu-i386 /usr/local/qemu-i386/bin/ls-i386
96
97-  Download the binary x86 Wine install (``qemu-XXX-i386-wine.tar.gz``
98   on the QEMU web page).
99
100-  Configure Wine on your account. Look at the provided script
101   ``/usr/local/qemu-i386/bin/wine-conf.sh``. Your previous
102   ``${HOME}/.wine`` directory is saved to ``${HOME}/.wine.org``.
103
104-  Then you can try the example ``putty.exe``::
105
106      qemu-i386 /usr/local/qemu-i386/wine/bin/wine \
107                /usr/local/qemu-i386/wine/c/Program\ Files/putty.exe
108
109Command line options
110~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
111
112::
113
114   qemu-i386 [-h] [-d] [-L path] [-s size] [-cpu model] [-g port] [-B offset] [-R size] program [arguments...]
115
116``-h``
117   Print the help
118
119``-L path``
120   Set the x86 elf interpreter prefix (default=/usr/local/qemu-i386)
121
122``-s size``
123   Set the x86 stack size in bytes (default=524288)
124
125``-cpu model``
126   Select CPU model (-cpu help for list and additional feature
127   selection)
128
129``-E var=value``
130   Set environment var to value.
131
132``-U var``
133   Remove var from the environment.
134
135``-B offset``
136   Offset guest address by the specified number of bytes. This is useful
137   when the address region required by guest applications is reserved on
138   the host. This option is currently only supported on some hosts.
139
140``-R size``
141   Pre-allocate a guest virtual address space of the given size (in
142   bytes). \"G\", \"M\", and \"k\" suffixes may be used when specifying
143   the size.
144
145Debug options:
146
147``-d item1,...``
148   Activate logging of the specified items (use '-d help' for a list of
149   log items)
150
151``-p pagesize``
152   Act as if the host page size was 'pagesize' bytes
153
154``-g port``
155   Wait gdb connection to port
156
157``-singlestep``
158   Run the emulation in single step mode.
159
160Environment variables:
161
162QEMU_STRACE
163   Print system calls and arguments similar to the 'strace' program
164   (NOTE: the actual 'strace' program will not work because the user
165   space emulator hasn't implemented ptrace). At the moment this is
166   incomplete. All system calls that don't have a specific argument
167   format are printed with information for six arguments. Many
168   flag-style arguments don't have decoders and will show up as numbers.
169
170Other binaries
171~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
172
173user mode (Alpha)
174``qemu-alpha`` TODO.
175
176user mode (Arm)
177``qemu-armeb`` TODO.
178
179user mode (Arm)
180``qemu-arm`` is also capable of running Arm \"Angel\" semihosted ELF
181binaries (as implemented by the arm-elf and arm-eabi Newlib/GDB
182configurations), and arm-uclinux bFLT format binaries.
183
184user mode (ColdFire)
185user mode (M68K)
186``qemu-m68k`` is capable of running semihosted binaries using the BDM
187(m5xxx-ram-hosted.ld) or m68k-sim (sim.ld) syscall interfaces, and
188coldfire uClinux bFLT format binaries.
189
190The binary format is detected automatically.
191
192user mode (Cris)
193``qemu-cris`` TODO.
194
195user mode (i386)
196``qemu-i386`` TODO. ``qemu-x86_64`` TODO.
197
198user mode (Microblaze)
199``qemu-microblaze`` TODO.
200
201user mode (MIPS)
202``qemu-mips`` executes 32-bit big endian MIPS binaries (MIPS O32 ABI).
203
204``qemu-mipsel`` executes 32-bit little endian MIPS binaries (MIPS O32
205ABI).
206
207``qemu-mips64`` executes 64-bit big endian MIPS binaries (MIPS N64 ABI).
208
209``qemu-mips64el`` executes 64-bit little endian MIPS binaries (MIPS N64
210ABI).
211
212``qemu-mipsn32`` executes 32-bit big endian MIPS binaries (MIPS N32
213ABI).
214
215``qemu-mipsn32el`` executes 32-bit little endian MIPS binaries (MIPS N32
216ABI).
217
218user mode (NiosII)
219``qemu-nios2`` TODO.
220
221user mode (PowerPC)
222``qemu-ppc64abi32`` TODO. ``qemu-ppc64`` TODO. ``qemu-ppc`` TODO.
223
224user mode (SH4)
225``qemu-sh4eb`` TODO. ``qemu-sh4`` TODO.
226
227user mode (SPARC)
228``qemu-sparc`` can execute Sparc32 binaries (Sparc32 CPU, 32 bit ABI).
229
230``qemu-sparc32plus`` can execute Sparc32 and SPARC32PLUS binaries
231(Sparc64 CPU, 32 bit ABI).
232
233``qemu-sparc64`` can execute some Sparc64 (Sparc64 CPU, 64 bit ABI) and
234SPARC32PLUS binaries (Sparc64 CPU, 32 bit ABI).
235
236BSD User space emulator
237-----------------------
238
239BSD Status
240~~~~~~~~~~
241
242-  target Sparc64 on Sparc64: Some trivial programs work.
243
244Quick Start
245~~~~~~~~~~~
246
247In order to launch a BSD process, QEMU needs the process executable
248itself and all the target dynamic libraries used by it.
249
250-  On Sparc64, you can just try to launch any process by using the
251   native libraries::
252
253      qemu-sparc64 /bin/ls
254
255Command line options
256~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
257
258::
259
260   qemu-sparc64 [-h] [-d] [-L path] [-s size] [-bsd type] program [arguments...]
261
262``-h``
263   Print the help
264
265``-L path``
266   Set the library root path (default=/)
267
268``-s size``
269   Set the stack size in bytes (default=524288)
270
271``-ignore-environment``
272   Start with an empty environment. Without this option, the initial
273   environment is a copy of the caller's environment.
274
275``-E var=value``
276   Set environment var to value.
277
278``-U var``
279   Remove var from the environment.
280
281``-bsd type``
282   Set the type of the emulated BSD Operating system. Valid values are
283   FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD (default).
284
285Debug options:
286
287``-d item1,...``
288   Activate logging of the specified items (use '-d help' for a list of
289   log items)
290
291``-p pagesize``
292   Act as if the host page size was 'pagesize' bytes
293
294``-singlestep``
295   Run the emulation in single step mode.
296