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 Building
  35 ========
  36
  37 QEMU is multi-platform software intended to be buildable on all modern
  38 Linux platforms, OS-X, Win32 (via the Mingw64 toolchain) and a variety
  39 of other UNIX targets. The simple steps to build QEMU are:
  40
  41
  42 .. code-block:: shell
  43
  44   mkdir build
  45   cd build
  46   ../configure
  47   make
  48
  49 Additional information can also be found online via the QEMU website:
  50
  51 * `<https://qemu.org/Hosts/Linux>`_
  52 * `<https://qemu.org/Hosts/Mac>`_
  53 * `<https://qemu.org/Hosts/W32>`_
  54
  55
  56 Submitting patches
  57 ==================
  58
  59 The QEMU source code is maintained under the GIT version control system.
  60
  61 .. code-block:: shell
  62
  63    git clone https://git.qemu.org/git/qemu.git
  64
  65 When submitting patches, one common approach is to use 'git
  66 format-patch' and/or 'git send-email' to format & send the mail to the
  67 qemu-devel@nongnu.org mailing list. All patches submitted must contain
  68 a 'Signed-off-by' line from the author. Patches should follow the
  69 guidelines set out in the CODING_STYLE.rst file.
  70
  71 Additional information on submitting patches can be found online via
  72 the QEMU website
  73
  74 * `<https://qemu.org/Contribute/SubmitAPatch>`_
  75 * `<https://qemu.org/Contribute/TrivialPatches>`_
  76
  77 The QEMU website is also maintained under source control.
  78
  79 .. code-block:: shell
  80
  81   git clone https://git.qemu.org/git/qemu-web.git
  82
  83 * `<https://www.qemu.org/2017/02/04/the-new-qemu-website-is-up/>`_
  84
  85 A 'git-publish' utility was created to make above process less
  86 cumbersome, and is highly recommended for making regular contributions,
  87 or even just for sending consecutive patch series revisions. It also
  88 requires a working 'git send-email' setup, and by default doesn't
  89 automate everything, so you may want to go through the above steps
  90 manually for once.
  91
  92 For installation instructions, please go to
  93
  94 *  `<https://github.com/stefanha/git-publish>`_
  95
  96 The workflow with 'git-publish' is:
  97
  98 .. code-block:: shell
  99
 100   $ git checkout master -b my-feature
 101   $ # work on new commits, add your 'Signed-off-by' lines to each
 102   $ git publish
 103
 104 Your patch series will be sent and tagged as my-feature-v1 if you need to refer
 105 back to it in the future.
 106
 107 Sending v2:
 108
 109 .. code-block:: shell
 110
 111   $ git checkout my-feature # same topic branch
 112   $ # making changes to the commits (using 'git rebase', for example)
 113   $ git publish
 114
 115 Your patch series will be sent with 'v2' tag in the subject and the git tip
 116 will be tagged as my-feature-v2.
 117
 118 Bug reporting
 119 =============
 120
 121 The QEMU project uses Launchpad as its primary upstream bug tracker. Bugs
 122 found when running code built from QEMU git or upstream released sources
 123 should be reported via:
 124
 125 * `<https://bugs.launchpad.net/qemu/>`_
 126
 127 If using QEMU via an operating system vendor pre-built binary package, it
 128 is preferable to report bugs to the vendor's own bug tracker first. If
 129 the bug is also known to affect latest upstream code, it can also be
 130 reported via launchpad.
 131
 132 For additional information on bug reporting consult:
 133
 134 * `<https://qemu.org/Contribute/ReportABug>`_
 135
 136
 137 Contact
 138 =======
 139
 140 The QEMU community can be contacted in a number of ways, with the two
 141 main methods being email and IRC
 142
 143 * `<mailto:qemu-devel@nongnu.org>`_
 144 * `<https://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/qemu-devel>`_
 145 * #qemu on irc.oftc.net
 146
 147 Information on additional methods of contacting the community can be
 148 found online via the QEMU website:
 149
 150 * `<https://qemu.org/Contribute/StartHere>`_