On Thu, 2023-03-02 at 17:31 +0100, Thomas Huth wrote: > Hardly anybody still uses 32-bit x86 hosts today, so we should start > deprecating them to stop wasting our time and CI minutes here. > For example, there are also still some unresolved problems with > these: > When emulating 64-bit binaries in user mode, TCG does not honor > atomicity > for 64-bit accesses, which is "perhaps worse than not working at all" > (quoting Richard). Let's simply make it clear that people should use > 64-bit x86 hosts nowadays and we do not intend to fix/maintain the > old > 32-bit stuff. > > Signed-off-by: Thomas Huth <thuth@xxxxxxxxxx> > --- > docs/about/deprecated.rst | 12 ++++++++++++ > 1 file changed, 12 insertions(+) Reviewed-by: Wilfred Mallawa <wilfred.mallawa@xxxxxxx> > > diff --git a/docs/about/deprecated.rst b/docs/about/deprecated.rst > index 11700adac9..a30aa8dfdf 100644 > --- a/docs/about/deprecated.rst > +++ b/docs/about/deprecated.rst > @@ -208,6 +208,18 @@ CI coverage support may bitrot away before the > deprecation process > completes. The little endian variants of MIPS (both 32 and 64 bit) > are > still a supported host architecture. > > +32-bit x86 hosts (since 8.0) > +'''''''''''''''''''''''''''' > + > +Support for 32-bit x86 host deployments is increasingly uncommon in > +mainstream OS distributions given the widespread availability of 64- > bit > +x86 hardware. The QEMU project no longer considers 32-bit x86 > support > +to be an effective use of its limited resources, and thus intends to > +discontinue it. Since all recent x86 hardware from the past >10 > years > +is capable of the 64-bit x86 extensions, a corresponding 64-bit OS > +should be used instead. > + > + > QEMU API (QAPI) events > ---------------------- >
