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Daniel P. Berrange0a3c1902015-10-12 18:41:19 +01001 QEMU README
2 ===========
bellard3ef693a2003-03-23 20:17:16 +00003
Daniel P. Berrange0a3c1902015-10-12 18:41:19 +01004QEMU is a generic and open source machine & userspace emulator and
5virtualizer.
6
7QEMU is capable of emulating a complete machine in software without any
8need for hardware virtualization support. By using dynamic translation,
9it achieves very good performance. QEMU can also integrate with the Xen
10and KVM hypervisors to provide emulated hardware while allowing the
11hypervisor to manage the CPU. With hypervisor support, QEMU can achieve
12near native performance for CPUs. When QEMU emulates CPUs directly it is
13capable of running operating systems made for one machine (e.g. an ARMv7
14board) on a different machine (e.g. an x86_64 PC board).
15
16QEMU is also capable of providing userspace API virtualization for Linux
17and BSD kernel interfaces. This allows binaries compiled against one
18architecture ABI (e.g. the Linux PPC64 ABI) to be run on a host using a
19different architecture ABI (e.g. the Linux x86_64 ABI). This does not
20involve any hardware emulation, simply CPU and syscall emulation.
21
22QEMU aims to fit into a variety of use cases. It can be invoked directly
23by users wishing to have full control over its behaviour and settings.
24It also aims to facilitate integration into higher level management
25layers, by providing a stable command line interface and monitor API.
26It is commonly invoked indirectly via the libvirt library when using
27open source applications such as oVirt, OpenStack and virt-manager.
28
29QEMU as a whole is released under the GNU General Public License,
30version 2. For full licensing details, consult the LICENSE file.
31
32
33Building
34========
35
36QEMU is multi-platform software intended to be buildable on all modern
37Linux platforms, OS-X, Win32 (via the Mingw64 toolchain) and a variety
38of other UNIX targets. The simple steps to build QEMU are:
39
40 mkdir build
41 cd build
42 ../configure
43 make
44
45Complete details of the process for building and configuring QEMU for
46all supported host platforms can be found in the qemu-tech.html file.
47Additional information can also be found online via the QEMU website:
48
49 http://qemu-project.org/Hosts/Linux
50 http://qemu-project.org/Hosts/W32
51
52
53Submitting patches
54==================
55
56The QEMU source code is maintained under the GIT version control system.
57
58 git clone git://git.qemu-project.org/qemu.git
59
60When submitting patches, the preferred approach is to use 'git
61format-patch' and/or 'git send-email' to format & send the mail to the
62qemu-devel@nongnu.org mailing list. All patches submitted must contain
63a 'Signed-off-by' line from the author. Patches should follow the
64guidelines set out in the HACKING and CODING_STYLE files.
65
66Additional information on submitting patches can be found online via
67the QEMU website
68
69 http://qemu-project.org/Contribute/SubmitAPatch
70 http://qemu-project.org/Contribute/TrivialPatches
71
72
73Bug reporting
74=============
75
76The QEMU project uses Launchpad as its primary upstream bug tracker. Bugs
77found when running code built from QEMU git or upstream released sources
78should be reported via:
79
80 https://bugs.launchpad.net/qemu/
81
82If using QEMU via an operating system vendor pre-built binary package, it
83is preferable to report bugs to the vendor's own bug tracker first. If
84the bug is also known to affect latest upstream code, it can also be
85reported via launchpad.
86
87For additional information on bug reporting consult:
88
89 http://qemu-project.org/Contribute/ReportABug
90
91
92Contact
93=======
94
95The QEMU community can be contacted in a number of ways, with the two
96main methods being email and IRC
97
98 - qemu-devel@nongnu.org
99 http://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/qemu-devel
100 - #qemu on irc.oftc.net
101
102Information on additional methods of contacting the community can be
103found online via the QEMU website:
104
105 http://qemu-project.org/Contribute/StartHere
106
107-- End