README.rst

   1 ===========
   2 QEMU README
   3 ===========
   4
   5 QEMU is a generic and open source machine & userspace emulator and
   6 virtualizer.
   7
   8 QEMU is capable of emulating a complete machine in software without any
   9 need for hardware virtualization support. By using dynamic translation,
  10 it achieves very good performance. QEMU can also integrate with the Xen
  11 and KVM hypervisors to provide emulated hardware while allowing the
  12 hypervisor to manage the CPU. With hypervisor support, QEMU can achieve
  13 near native performance for CPUs. When QEMU emulates CPUs directly it is
  14 capable of running operating systems made for one machine (e.g. an ARMv7
  15 board) on a different machine (e.g. an x86_64 PC board).
  16
  17 QEMU is also capable of providing userspace API virtualization for Linux
  18 and BSD kernel interfaces. This allows binaries compiled against one
  19 architecture ABI (e.g. the Linux PPC64 ABI) to be run on a host using a
  20 different architecture ABI (e.g. the Linux x86_64 ABI). This does not
  21 involve any hardware emulation, simply CPU and syscall emulation.
  22
  23 QEMU aims to fit into a variety of use cases. It can be invoked directly
  24 by users wishing to have full control over its behaviour and settings.
  25 It also aims to facilitate integration into higher level management
  26 layers, by providing a stable command line interface and monitor API.
  27 It is commonly invoked indirectly via the libvirt library when using
  28 open source applications such as oVirt, OpenStack and virt-manager.
  29
  30 QEMU as a whole is released under the GNU General Public License,
  31 version 2. For full licensing details, consult the LICENSE file.
  32
  33
  34 Documentation
  35 =============
  36
  37 Documentation can be found hosted online at
  38 `<https://www.qemu.org/documentation/>`_. The documentation for the
  39 current development version that is available at
  40 `<https://www.qemu.org/docs/master/>`_ is generated from the ``docs/``
  41 folder in the source tree, and is built by `Sphinx
  42 <https://www.sphinx-doc.org/en/master/>`_.
  43
  44
  45 Building
  46 ========
  47
  48 QEMU is multi-platform software intended to be buildable on all modern
  49 Linux platforms, OS-X, Win32 (via the Mingw64 toolchain) and a variety
  50 of other UNIX targets. The simple steps to build QEMU are:
  51
  52
  53 .. code-block:: shell
  54
  55   mkdir build
  56   cd build
  57   ../configure
  58   make
  59
  60 Additional information can also be found online via the QEMU website:
  61
  62 * `<https://wiki.qemu.org/Hosts/Linux>`_
  63 * `<https://wiki.qemu.org/Hosts/Mac>`_
  64 * `<https://wiki.qemu.org/Hosts/W32>`_
  65
  66
  67 Submitting patches
  68 ==================
  69
  70 The QEMU source code is maintained under the GIT version control system.
  71
  72 .. code-block:: shell
  73
  74    git clone https://gitlab.com/qemu-project/qemu.git
  75
  76 When submitting patches, one common approach is to use 'git
  77 format-patch' and/or 'git send-email' to format & send the mail to the
  78 qemu-devel@nongnu.org mailing list. All patches submitted must contain
  79 a 'Signed-off-by' line from the author. Patches should follow the
  80 guidelines set out in the `style section
  81 <https://www.qemu.org/docs/master/devel/style.html>`_ of
  82 the Developers Guide.
  83
  84 Additional information on submitting patches can be found online via
  85 the QEMU website
  86
  87 * `<https://wiki.qemu.org/Contribute/SubmitAPatch>`_
  88 * `<https://wiki.qemu.org/Contribute/TrivialPatches>`_
  89
  90 The QEMU website is also maintained under source control.
  91
  92 .. code-block:: shell
  93
  94   git clone https://gitlab.com/qemu-project/qemu-web.git
  95
  96 * `<https://www.qemu.org/2017/02/04/the-new-qemu-website-is-up/>`_
  97
  98 A 'git-publish' utility was created to make above process less
  99 cumbersome, and is highly recommended for making regular contributions,
 100 or even just for sending consecutive patch series revisions. It also
 101 requires a working 'git send-email' setup, and by default doesn't
 102 automate everything, so you may want to go through the above steps
 103 manually for once.
 104
 105 For installation instructions, please go to
 106
 107 *  `<https://github.com/stefanha/git-publish>`_
 108
 109 The workflow with 'git-publish' is:
 110
 111 .. code-block:: shell
 112
 113   $ git checkout master -b my-feature
 114   $ # work on new commits, add your 'Signed-off-by' lines to each
 115   $ git publish
 116
 117 Your patch series will be sent and tagged as my-feature-v1 if you need to refer
 118 back to it in the future.
 119
 120 Sending v2:
 121
 122 .. code-block:: shell
 123
 124   $ git checkout my-feature # same topic branch
 125   $ # making changes to the commits (using 'git rebase', for example)
 126   $ git publish
 127
 128 Your patch series will be sent with 'v2' tag in the subject and the git tip
 129 will be tagged as my-feature-v2.
 130
 131 Bug reporting
 132 =============
 133
 134 The QEMU project uses GitLab issues to track bugs. Bugs
 135 found when running code built from QEMU git or upstream released sources
 136 should be reported via:
 137
 138 * `<https://gitlab.com/qemu-project/qemu/-/issues>`_
 139
 140 If using QEMU via an operating system vendor pre-built binary package, it
 141 is preferable to report bugs to the vendor's own bug tracker first. If
 142 the bug is also known to affect latest upstream code, it can also be
 143 reported via GitLab.
 144
 145 For additional information on bug reporting consult:
 146
 147 * `<https://wiki.qemu.org/Contribute/ReportABug>`_
 148
 149
 150 ChangeLog
 151 =========
 152
 153 For version history and release notes, please visit
 154 `<https://wiki.qemu.org/ChangeLog/>`_ or look at the git history for
 155 more detailed information.
 156
 157
 158 Contact
 159 =======
 160
 161 The QEMU community can be contacted in a number of ways, with the two
 162 main methods being email and IRC
 163
 164 * `<mailto:qemu-devel@nongnu.org>`_
 165 * `<https://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/qemu-devel>`_
 166 * #qemu on irc.oftc.net
 167
 168 Information on additional methods of contacting the community can be
 169 found online via the QEMU website:
 170
 171 * `<https://wiki.qemu.org/Contribute/StartHere>`_