Re: [Qemu-devel] Drop support for 32bit hosts in qemu? (was: [PULL 1/6] audio/hda: create millisecond timers that handle IO)

[BALATON Zoltan]

On Wed, 27 Jun 2018, Markus Armbruster wrote:
> Thomas Huth <address@hidden> writes:
> > On 27.06.2018 08:51, Gerd Hoffmann wrote:
> [...]
> > > Drop support for 32bit hosts in qemu?
> >
> > I guess the only way to answer that question reliably is to send a patch
> > to mark 32-bit hosts as deprecated...
> >
> > Anyway, you still have got to fix that problem with -m32 now somehow
> > since we certainly can not drop 32-bit immediately.
>
> We certainly can if we want to.
>
> Our formal deprecation policy codifies our compromise between the need
> to evolve QEMU and the need of its users for stable external interfaces.
>
> "Compiles on host X" is also a need, but it's a different one.
> Evidence: "Supported build platforms" has its own appendix, separate
> from "Deprecated features".  It's mum on 32-bit hosts.
>
> I'm not saying we *should* drop 32-bit hosts immediately.  Only that the
> feature deprecation policy does not apply.
>
> Is QEMU still useful on 32-bit hosts?  Honest question!

I guess it depends on what 32-bit hosts you consider. If you look at only 
x86 vs. x86_64 then probably x86 is not that important any more but for 
some embedded systems/SoCs 32bit might still be common and QEMU useful for 
those (also as host not only emulated).

Another option might be to not support audio/hda on 32bit hosts. It's not 
nice either but a lot nicer than dropping support for 32bit hosts 
alltogether to fix a problem in device emulation. The nicest would of 
course be fixing the device emulation to work on all supported platform.

Regards,
BALATON Zoltan