From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:52359) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1fY8KK-0004MP-C5 for qemu-devel@nongnu.org; Wed, 27 Jun 2018 07:09:33 -0400 Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1fY8KH-0002Aq-65 for qemu-devel@nongnu.org; Wed, 27 Jun 2018 07:09:32 -0400 Received: from mx3-rdu2.redhat.com ([66.187.233.73]:37758 helo=mx1.redhat.com) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.0:DHE_RSA_AES_256_CBC_SHA1:32) (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1fY8KG-0002AQ-Px for qemu-devel@nongnu.org; Wed, 27 Jun 2018 07:09:29 -0400 Date: Wed, 27 Jun 2018 12:09:23 +0100 From: Daniel =?utf-8?B?UC4gQmVycmFuZ8Op?= Message-ID: <20180627110923.GG30628@redhat.com> Reply-To: Daniel =?utf-8?B?UC4gQmVycmFuZ8Op?= References: <20180625131253.11218-1-kraxel@redhat.com> <20180625131253.11218-2-kraxel@redhat.com> <6ad67e44-b002-1cd7-cfd1-2d98ebde1a7e@redhat.com> <20180627065126.mwzdxshr3njzok7n@sirius.home.kraxel.org> <0df8a05c-43fc-6e85-b13c-d3f5c4691964@redhat.com> <87fu18ach6.fsf_-_@dusky.pond.sub.org> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <87fu18ach6.fsf_-_@dusky.pond.sub.org> Subject: Re: [Qemu-devel] Drop support for 32bit hosts in qemu? (was: [PULL 1/6] audio/hda: create millisecond timers that handle IO) List-Id: List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , To: Markus Armbruster Cc: Thomas Huth , Martin Schrodt , qemu-devel@nongnu.org, Gerd Hoffmann , Max Reitz On Wed, Jun 27, 2018 at 09:57:09AM +0200, Markus Armbruster wrote: > Thomas Huth writes: > > > On 27.06.2018 08:51, Gerd Hoffmann wrote: > [...] > >> Drop support for 32bit hosts in qemu? > > > > I guess the only way to answer that question reliably is to send a patch > > to mark 32-bit hosts as deprecated... > > > > Anyway, you still have got to fix that problem with -m32 now somehow > > since we certainly can not drop 32-bit immediately. > > We certainly can if we want to. > > Our formal deprecation policy codifies our compromise between the need > to evolve QEMU and the need of its users for stable external interfaces. > > "Compiles on host X" is also a need, but it's a different one. > Evidence: "Supported build platforms" has its own appendix, separate > from "Deprecated features". It's mum on 32-bit hosts. It is silent on host architecture coverage in general in fact. It was only really focusing on operating systems and so any arch coverage is at best inferred from what those OS target. Fedora covers 32-bit & 64-bit arches for example, so you could take that to imply we need to support both in QEMU. It is fuzzier though because while Peter has good OS coverage for his merge testing, I don't think he has full host arch coverage for everything that downstreams expect QEMU to build on ? > I'm not saying we *should* drop 32-bit hosts immediately. Only that the > feature deprecation policy does not apply. > > Is QEMU still useful on 32-bit hosts? Honest question! That answer varies depending on what you're using QEMU for I think. It could be that people see tools like qemu-img/qemu-nbd as useful even if they don't use system emulators. And of course userspace emulators are enough distinct use case. IMHO as long as distros are shipping 32-bit support, it is reasonable to assume there will be people who find QEMU useful to some degree. Personally I don't have any need for 32-bit hosts, but clearly some people do since otherwise distros would have killed their 32-bit arches already. Regards, Daniel -- |: https://berrange.com -o- https://www.flickr.com/photos/dberrange :| |: https://libvirt.org -o- https://fstop138.berrange.com :| |: https://entangle-photo.org -o- https://www.instagram.com/dberrange :|