Re: [PATCH 1/2] docs/about: Deprecate 32-bit x86 hosts and qemu-system-i386
On 27/02/2023 21.12, Michael S. Tsirkin wrote:
On Mon, Feb 27, 2023 at 11:50:07AM +0000, Daniel P. Berrangé wrote:
> I feel like we should have separate deprecation entries for the
> i686 host support, and for qemu-system-i386 emulator binary, as
> although they're related they are independant features with
> differing impact. eg removing qemu-system-i386 affects all
> host architectures, not merely 32-bit x86 host, so I think we
> can explain the impact more clearly if we separate them.
Removing qemu-system-i386 seems ok to me - I think qemu-system-x86_64 is
a superset.
Removing support for building on 32 bit systems seems like a pity - it's
one of a small number of ways to run 64 bit binaries on 32 bit systems,
and the maintainance overhead is quite small.
Note: We're talking about 32-bit *x86* hosts here. Do you really think that
someone is still using QEMU usermode emulation
to run 64-bit binaries on a 32-bit x86 host?? ... If so, I'd be very surprised!
In fact, keeping this support around forces correct use of
posix APIs such as e.g. PRIx64 which makes the code base
more future-proof.
If you're concerned about PRIx64 and friends: We still continue to do
compile testing with 32-bit MIPS cross-compilers and Windows 32-bit
cross-compilers for now. The only thing we'd lose is the 32-bit "make check"
run in the CI.
Thomas