[PATCH] Add option to disable building tests

[PATCH] Add option to disable building tests

[Florian Schmidt]

There are situations in which you might want to build QEMU without
building the full test suite, which in some configurations can take a
considerable amount of time to build. This is especially true when using
LTO with clang. For example:

$ ../configure --cc=clang '--extra-ldflags=-flto=thin -ffat-lto-objects' '--extra-cflags=-flto=thin -ffat-lto-objects' --target-list=x86_64-softmmu
[...]
$ time make -j8
[...]
[3078/3078] Linking target tests/qtest/qos-test
real    6m43.250s
user    101m15.967s
sys     4m3.813s

$ ../configure --cc=clang '--extra-ldflags=-flto=thin -ffat-lto-objects' '--extra-cflags=-flto=thin -ffat-lto-objects' --target-list=x86_64-softmmu --disable-tests
[...]
$ time make -j8
[...]
[2024/2024] Linking target qemu-system-x86_64

real    3m14.277s
user    33m13.174s
sys     1m36.642s

Add a toggle to optionally disable building tests.

Signed-off-by: Florian Schmidt <flosch@nutanix.com>
---
 meson.build                   | 2 +-
 meson_options.txt             | 2 ++
 scripts/meson-buildoptions.sh | 3 +++
 3 files changed, 6 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index 49a5baf5b5..ad728c26ec 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -4605,7 +4605,7 @@ subdir('docs')
 subdir('pyvenv')
 # Tests are disabled on emscripten because they rely on host features that aren't
 # supported by emscripten (e.g. fork and unix socket).
-if host_os != 'emscripten'
+if get_option('tests').allowed() and host_os != 'emscripten'
   subdir('tests')
 endif
 if gtk.found()
diff --git a/meson_options.txt b/meson_options.txt
index a07cb47d35..68333ca402 100644
--- a/meson_options.txt
+++ b/meson_options.txt
@@ -43,6 +43,8 @@ option('gdb', type: 'string', value: '',
 # on the configure script command line.  After adding an option
 # here make sure to run "make update-buildoptions".
 
+option('tests', type: 'feature', value: 'auto',
+       description: 'Build the test suite')
 option('docs', type : 'feature', value : 'auto',
        description: 'Documentations build support')
 option('fuzzing', type : 'boolean', value: false,
diff --git a/scripts/meson-buildoptions.sh b/scripts/meson-buildoptions.sh
index c003985047..3fec13a336 100644
--- a/scripts/meson-buildoptions.sh
+++ b/scripts/meson-buildoptions.sh
@@ -194,6 +194,7 @@ meson_options_help() {
   printf "%s\n" '  spice-protocol  Spice protocol support'
   printf "%s\n" '  stack-protector compiler-provided stack protection'
   printf "%s\n" '  tcg             TCG support'
+  printf "%s\n" '  tests           build test suite'
   printf "%s\n" '  tools           build support utilities that come with QEMU'
   printf "%s\n" '  tpm             TPM support'
   printf "%s\n" '  u2f             U2F emulation support'
@@ -515,6 +516,8 @@ _meson_option_parse() {
     --enable-tcg-interpreter) printf "%s" -Dtcg_interpreter=true ;;
     --disable-tcg-interpreter) printf "%s" -Dtcg_interpreter=false ;;
     --tls-priority=*) quote_sh "-Dtls_priority=$2" ;;
+    --enable-tests) printf "%s" -Dtests=enabled ;;
+    --disable-tests) printf "%s" -Dtests=disabled ;;
     --enable-tools) printf "%s" -Dtools=enabled ;;
     --disable-tools) printf "%s" -Dtools=disabled ;;
     --enable-tpm) printf "%s" -Dtpm=enabled ;;
-- 
2.47.3

Re: [PATCH] Add option to disable building tests

[Pierrick Bouvier]

On 7/24/2026 6:54 AM, Florian Schmidt wrote:
> There are situations in which you might want to build QEMU without
> building the full test suite, which in some configurations can take a
> considerable amount of time to build. This is especially true when using
> LTO with clang. For example:
> 
> $ ../configure --cc=clang '--extra-ldflags=-flto=thin -ffat-lto-objects' '--extra-cflags=-flto=thin -ffat-lto-objects' --target-list=x86_64-softmmu
> [...]
> $ time make -j8
> [...]
> [3078/3078] Linking target tests/qtest/qos-test
> real    6m43.250s
> user    101m15.967s
> sys     4m3.813s
> 
> $ ../configure --cc=clang '--extra-ldflags=-flto=thin -ffat-lto-objects' '--extra-cflags=-flto=thin -ffat-lto-objects' --target-list=x86_64-softmmu --disable-tests
> [...]
> $ time make -j8
> [...]
> [2024/2024] Linking target qemu-system-x86_64
> 
> real    3m14.277s
> user    33m13.174s
> sys     1m36.642s
> 
> Add a toggle to optionally disable building tests.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Florian Schmidt <flosch@nutanix.com>
> ---
>  meson.build                   | 2 +-
>  meson_options.txt             | 2 ++
>  scripts/meson-buildoptions.sh | 3 +++
>  3 files changed, 6 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
> 
> diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
> index 49a5baf5b5..ad728c26ec 100644
> --- a/meson.build
> +++ b/meson.build
> @@ -4605,7 +4605,7 @@ subdir('docs')
>  subdir('pyvenv')
>  # Tests are disabled on emscripten because they rely on host features that aren't
>  # supported by emscripten (e.g. fork and unix socket).
> -if host_os != 'emscripten'
> +if get_option('tests').allowed() and host_os != 'emscripten'
>    subdir('tests')
>  endif
>  if gtk.found()
> diff --git a/meson_options.txt b/meson_options.txt
> index a07cb47d35..68333ca402 100644
> --- a/meson_options.txt
> +++ b/meson_options.txt
> @@ -43,6 +43,8 @@ option('gdb', type: 'string', value: '',
>  # on the configure script command line.  After adding an option
>  # here make sure to run "make update-buildoptions".
>  
> +option('tests', type: 'feature', value: 'auto',
> +       description: 'Build the test suite')
>  option('docs', type : 'feature', value : 'auto',
>         description: 'Documentations build support')
>  option('fuzzing', type : 'boolean', value: false,
> diff --git a/scripts/meson-buildoptions.sh b/scripts/meson-buildoptions.sh
> index c003985047..3fec13a336 100644
> --- a/scripts/meson-buildoptions.sh
> +++ b/scripts/meson-buildoptions.sh
> @@ -194,6 +194,7 @@ meson_options_help() {
>    printf "%s\n" '  spice-protocol  Spice protocol support'
>    printf "%s\n" '  stack-protector compiler-provided stack protection'
>    printf "%s\n" '  tcg             TCG support'
> +  printf "%s\n" '  tests           build test suite'
>    printf "%s\n" '  tools           build support utilities that come with QEMU'
>    printf "%s\n" '  tpm             TPM support'
>    printf "%s\n" '  u2f             U2F emulation support'
> @@ -515,6 +516,8 @@ _meson_option_parse() {
>      --enable-tcg-interpreter) printf "%s" -Dtcg_interpreter=true ;;
>      --disable-tcg-interpreter) printf "%s" -Dtcg_interpreter=false ;;
>      --tls-priority=*) quote_sh "-Dtls_priority=$2" ;;
> +    --enable-tests) printf "%s" -Dtests=enabled ;;
> +    --disable-tests) printf "%s" -Dtests=disabled ;;
>      --enable-tools) printf "%s" -Dtools=enabled ;;
>      --disable-tools) printf "%s" -Dtools=disabled ;;
>      --enable-tpm) printf "%s" -Dtpm=enabled ;;

That's a great addition, including just for speeding up normal builds.

Reviewed-by: Pierrick Bouvier <pierrick.bouvier@oss.qualcomm.com>
Tested-by: Pierrick Bouvier <pierrick.bouvier@oss.qualcomm.com>

If we want to overengineer the thing, it could be possible to still
declare all tests, but not build them by default. However, it's probably
too error prone and much less simple than this patch. So I don't think
it's a good idea.

Regards,
Pierrick

Re: [PATCH] Add option to disable building tests

[Philippe Mathieu-Daudé]

On 24/7/26 18:45, Pierrick Bouvier wrote:
> On 7/24/2026 6:54 AM, Florian Schmidt wrote:
>> There are situations in which you might want to build QEMU without
>> building the full test suite, which in some configurations can take a
>> considerable amount of time to build. This is especially true when using
>> LTO with clang. For example:
>>
>> $ ../configure --cc=clang '--extra-ldflags=-flto=thin -ffat-lto-objects' '--extra-cflags=-flto=thin -ffat-lto-objects' --target-list=x86_64-softmmu
>> [...]
>> $ time make -j8
>> [...]
>> [3078/3078] Linking target tests/qtest/qos-test
>> real    6m43.250s
>> user    101m15.967s
>> sys     4m3.813s
>>
>> $ ../configure --cc=clang '--extra-ldflags=-flto=thin -ffat-lto-objects' '--extra-cflags=-flto=thin -ffat-lto-objects' --target-list=x86_64-softmmu --disable-tests
>> [...]
>> $ time make -j8
>> [...]
>> [2024/2024] Linking target qemu-system-x86_64
>>
>> real    3m14.277s
>> user    33m13.174s
>> sys     1m36.642s
>>
>> Add a toggle to optionally disable building tests.
>>
>> Signed-off-by: Florian Schmidt <flosch@nutanix.com>
>> ---
>>   meson.build                   | 2 +-
>>   meson_options.txt             | 2 ++
>>   scripts/meson-buildoptions.sh | 3 +++
>>   3 files changed, 6 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
>>
>> diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
>> index 49a5baf5b5..ad728c26ec 100644
>> --- a/meson.build
>> +++ b/meson.build
>> @@ -4605,7 +4605,7 @@ subdir('docs')
>>   subdir('pyvenv')
>>   # Tests are disabled on emscripten because they rely on host features that aren't
>>   # supported by emscripten (e.g. fork and unix socket).
>> -if host_os != 'emscripten'
>> +if get_option('tests').allowed() and host_os != 'emscripten'
>>     subdir('tests')
>>   endif
>>   if gtk.found()
>> diff --git a/meson_options.txt b/meson_options.txt
>> index a07cb47d35..68333ca402 100644
>> --- a/meson_options.txt
>> +++ b/meson_options.txt
>> @@ -43,6 +43,8 @@ option('gdb', type: 'string', value: '',
>>   # on the configure script command line.  After adding an option
>>   # here make sure to run "make update-buildoptions".
>>   
>> +option('tests', type: 'feature', value: 'auto',
>> +       description: 'Build the test suite')
>>   option('docs', type : 'feature', value : 'auto',
>>          description: 'Documentations build support')
>>   option('fuzzing', type : 'boolean', value: false,
>> diff --git a/scripts/meson-buildoptions.sh b/scripts/meson-buildoptions.sh
>> index c003985047..3fec13a336 100644
>> --- a/scripts/meson-buildoptions.sh
>> +++ b/scripts/meson-buildoptions.sh
>> @@ -194,6 +194,7 @@ meson_options_help() {
>>     printf "%s\n" '  spice-protocol  Spice protocol support'
>>     printf "%s\n" '  stack-protector compiler-provided stack protection'
>>     printf "%s\n" '  tcg             TCG support'
>> +  printf "%s\n" '  tests           build test suite'
>>     printf "%s\n" '  tools           build support utilities that come with QEMU'
>>     printf "%s\n" '  tpm             TPM support'
>>     printf "%s\n" '  u2f             U2F emulation support'
>> @@ -515,6 +516,8 @@ _meson_option_parse() {
>>       --enable-tcg-interpreter) printf "%s" -Dtcg_interpreter=true ;;
>>       --disable-tcg-interpreter) printf "%s" -Dtcg_interpreter=false ;;
>>       --tls-priority=*) quote_sh "-Dtls_priority=$2" ;;
>> +    --enable-tests) printf "%s" -Dtests=enabled ;;
>> +    --disable-tests) printf "%s" -Dtests=disabled ;;
>>       --enable-tools) printf "%s" -Dtools=enabled ;;
>>       --disable-tools) printf "%s" -Dtools=disabled ;;
>>       --enable-tpm) printf "%s" -Dtpm=enabled ;;
> 
> That's a great addition, including just for speeding up normal builds.
> 
> Reviewed-by: Pierrick Bouvier <pierrick.bouvier@oss.qualcomm.com>
> Tested-by: Pierrick Bouvier <pierrick.bouvier@oss.qualcomm.com>
> 
> If we want to overengineer the thing, it could be possible to still
> declare all tests, but not build them by default. However, it's probably
> too error prone and much less simple than this patch. So I don't think
> it's a good idea.
> 
> Regards,
> Pierrick
> 

When is it useful to build without the provided test suite? When another
one is better? Why not contribute it then?

Or is is just that you don't want to test your changes?

The problem might be we build the tests by default but don't run them by
default.

Re: [PATCH] Add option to disable building tests

[Florian Schmidt]

On 2026-07-27 09:12, Philippe Mathieu-Daudé wrote:
> When is it useful to build without the provided test suite? When another
> one is better? Why not contribute it then?
> 
> Or is is just that you don't want to test your changes?

In our case, we have pipelines that rebuild/repackage QEMU after a full 
build+test, without running the test suite again. In those cases, 
building the tests is wasted effort, and considerably increases the 
overall build times.


> The problem might be we build the tests by default but don't run them by
> default.

That's fair, but I would argue that in that case, there should still be 
some way to build the binaries without building and running the tests.

Cheers,
Florian

Re: [PATCH] Add option to disable building tests

[Daniel P. Berrangé]

On Mon, Jul 27, 2026 at 09:46:33AM +0100, Florian Schmidt wrote:
> On 2026-07-27 09:12, Philippe Mathieu-Daudé wrote:
> > When is it useful to build without the provided test suite? When another
> > one is better? Why not contribute it then?
> > 
> > Or is is just that you don't want to test your changes?
> 
> In our case, we have pipelines that rebuild/repackage QEMU after a full
> build+test, without running the test suite again. In those cases, building
> the tests is wasted effort, and considerably increases the overall build
> times.

I would suggest that building a second time is wasted effort too. If
the 2nd build is byte-for-byte identical to the 1st build, then it is
pointless. If it is not byte-for-byte identical, then you'll be taking
binaries that have not been tested.

With regards,
Daniel
-- 
|: https://berrange.com       ~~        https://hachyderm.io/@berrange :|
|: https://libvirt.org          ~~          https://entangle-photo.org :|
|: https://pixelfed.art/berrange   ~~    https://fstop138.berrange.com :|

Re: [PATCH] Add option to disable building tests

[Florian Schmidt]

On 2026-07-27 09:50, Daniel P. Berrangé wrote:
> I would suggest that building a second time is wasted effort too. If
> the 2nd build is byte-for-byte identical to the 1st build, then it is
> pointless. If it is not byte-for-byte identical, then you'll be taking
> binaries that have not been tested.

You're absolutely right. They are bit-to-bit-identical, and it is wasted 
effort, too. That is something we'll look at internally.

However, it felt like a genuinely useful feature to split build and test 
phase more strongly, by having the ability to only build the product 
binaries if desired.

There are other options, of course. A new build target such as "make 
bin" or similar could only build the product binaries, and a following 
"make test" would then build + run the tests. This could be combined 
with Philippe's idea to run (and not only build) the tests by default, 
though I'm always wary of changing the behaviour of default targets. 
That's obviously a maintainers' decision.

Cheers,
Florian

Re: [PATCH] Add option to disable building tests

[Thomas Huth]

On 27/07/2026 10.12, Philippe Mathieu-Daudé wrote:
> On 24/7/26 18:45, Pierrick Bouvier wrote:
>> On 7/24/2026 6:54 AM, Florian Schmidt wrote:
>>> There are situations in which you might want to build QEMU without
>>> building the full test suite, which in some configurations can take a
>>> considerable amount of time to build. This is especially true when using
>>> LTO with clang. For example:
>>>
>>> $ ../configure --cc=clang '--extra-ldflags=-flto=thin -ffat-lto-objects' 
>>> '--extra-cflags=-flto=thin -ffat-lto-objects' --target-list=x86_64-softmmu
>>> [...]
>>> $ time make -j8
>>> [...]
>>> [3078/3078] Linking target tests/qtest/qos-test
>>> real    6m43.250s
>>> user    101m15.967s
>>> sys     4m3.813s
>>>
>>> $ ../configure --cc=clang '--extra-ldflags=-flto=thin -ffat-lto-objects' 
>>> '--extra-cflags=-flto=thin -ffat-lto-objects' --target-list=x86_64- 
>>> softmmu --disable-tests
>>> [...]
>>> $ time make -j8
>>> [...]
>>> [2024/2024] Linking target qemu-system-x86_64
>>>
>>> real    3m14.277s
>>> user    33m13.174s
>>> sys     1m36.642s
>>>
>>> Add a toggle to optionally disable building tests.
>>>
>>> Signed-off-by: Florian Schmidt <flosch@nutanix.com>
>>> ---
>>>   meson.build                   | 2 +-
>>>   meson_options.txt             | 2 ++
>>>   scripts/meson-buildoptions.sh | 3 +++
>>>   3 files changed, 6 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
>>>
>>> diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
>>> index 49a5baf5b5..ad728c26ec 100644
>>> --- a/meson.build
>>> +++ b/meson.build
>>> @@ -4605,7 +4605,7 @@ subdir('docs')
>>>   subdir('pyvenv')
>>>   # Tests are disabled on emscripten because they rely on host features 
>>> that aren't
>>>   # supported by emscripten (e.g. fork and unix socket).
>>> -if host_os != 'emscripten'
>>> +if get_option('tests').allowed() and host_os != 'emscripten'
>>>     subdir('tests')
>>>   endif
>>>   if gtk.found()
>>> diff --git a/meson_options.txt b/meson_options.txt
>>> index a07cb47d35..68333ca402 100644
>>> --- a/meson_options.txt
>>> +++ b/meson_options.txt
>>> @@ -43,6 +43,8 @@ option('gdb', type: 'string', value: '',
>>>   # on the configure script command line.  After adding an option
>>>   # here make sure to run "make update-buildoptions".
>>> +option('tests', type: 'feature', value: 'auto',
>>> +       description: 'Build the test suite')
>>>   option('docs', type : 'feature', value : 'auto',
>>>          description: 'Documentations build support')
>>>   option('fuzzing', type : 'boolean', value: false,
>>> diff --git a/scripts/meson-buildoptions.sh b/scripts/meson-buildoptions.sh
>>> index c003985047..3fec13a336 100644
>>> --- a/scripts/meson-buildoptions.sh
>>> +++ b/scripts/meson-buildoptions.sh
>>> @@ -194,6 +194,7 @@ meson_options_help() {
>>>     printf "%s\n" '  spice-protocol  Spice protocol support'
>>>     printf "%s\n" '  stack-protector compiler-provided stack protection'
>>>     printf "%s\n" '  tcg             TCG support'
>>> +  printf "%s\n" '  tests           build test suite'
>>>     printf "%s\n" '  tools           build support utilities that come 
>>> with QEMU'
>>>     printf "%s\n" '  tpm             TPM support'
>>>     printf "%s\n" '  u2f             U2F emulation support'
>>> @@ -515,6 +516,8 @@ _meson_option_parse() {
>>>       --enable-tcg-interpreter) printf "%s" -Dtcg_interpreter=true ;;
>>>       --disable-tcg-interpreter) printf "%s" -Dtcg_interpreter=false ;;
>>>       --tls-priority=*) quote_sh "-Dtls_priority=$2" ;;
>>> +    --enable-tests) printf "%s" -Dtests=enabled ;;
>>> +    --disable-tests) printf "%s" -Dtests=disabled ;;
>>>       --enable-tools) printf "%s" -Dtools=enabled ;;
>>>       --disable-tools) printf "%s" -Dtools=disabled ;;
>>>       --enable-tpm) printf "%s" -Dtpm=enabled ;;
>>
>> That's a great addition, including just for speeding up normal builds.
>>
>> Reviewed-by: Pierrick Bouvier <pierrick.bouvier@oss.qualcomm.com>
>> Tested-by: Pierrick Bouvier <pierrick.bouvier@oss.qualcomm.com>
>>
>> If we want to overengineer the thing, it could be possible to still
>> declare all tests, but not build them by default. However, it's probably
>> too error prone and much less simple than this patch. So I don't think
>> it's a good idea.
>>
>> Regards,
>> Pierrick
>>
> 
> When is it useful to build without the provided test suite?
I sometimes wished indeed for a --disable-tests switch in the past already 
(was just too lazy to contribute a patch): I'm sometimes building QEMU in a 
separate directory, just for a very special case like testing a patch with 
an --enable-asan build, or for doing a "git bisect". In such cases, I never 
want to run the normal tests since it's simply not necessary. I run the 
tests from my main build directory instead once I have a final patch and 
want to contribute it to upstream. So IMHO this patch is a good idea.

  Thomas

Re: [PATCH] Add option to disable building tests

[BALATON Zoltan]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 5347 bytes --]

On Mon, 27 Jul 2026, Thomas Huth wrote:
> On 27/07/2026 10.12, Philippe Mathieu-Daudé wrote:
>> On 24/7/26 18:45, Pierrick Bouvier wrote:
>>> On 7/24/2026 6:54 AM, Florian Schmidt wrote:
>>>> There are situations in which you might want to build QEMU without
>>>> building the full test suite, which in some configurations can take a
>>>> considerable amount of time to build. This is especially true when using
>>>> LTO with clang. For example:
>>>> 
>>>> $ ../configure --cc=clang '--extra-ldflags=-flto=thin -ffat-lto-objects' 
>>>> '--extra-cflags=-flto=thin -ffat-lto-objects' 
>>>> --target-list=x86_64-softmmu
>>>> [...]
>>>> $ time make -j8
>>>> [...]
>>>> [3078/3078] Linking target tests/qtest/qos-test
>>>> real    6m43.250s
>>>> user    101m15.967s
>>>> sys     4m3.813s
>>>> 
>>>> $ ../configure --cc=clang '--extra-ldflags=-flto=thin -ffat-lto-objects' 
>>>> '--extra-cflags=-flto=thin -ffat-lto-objects' --target-list=x86_64- 
>>>> softmmu --disable-tests
>>>> [...]
>>>> $ time make -j8
>>>> [...]
>>>> [2024/2024] Linking target qemu-system-x86_64
>>>> 
>>>> real    3m14.277s
>>>> user    33m13.174s
>>>> sys     1m36.642s
>>>> 
>>>> Add a toggle to optionally disable building tests.
>>>> 
>>>> Signed-off-by: Florian Schmidt <flosch@nutanix.com>
>>>> ---
>>>>   meson.build                   | 2 +-
>>>>   meson_options.txt             | 2 ++
>>>>   scripts/meson-buildoptions.sh | 3 +++
>>>>   3 files changed, 6 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
>>>> 
>>>> diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
>>>> index 49a5baf5b5..ad728c26ec 100644
>>>> --- a/meson.build
>>>> +++ b/meson.build
>>>> @@ -4605,7 +4605,7 @@ subdir('docs')
>>>>   subdir('pyvenv')
>>>>   # Tests are disabled on emscripten because they rely on host features 
>>>> that aren't
>>>>   # supported by emscripten (e.g. fork and unix socket).
>>>> -if host_os != 'emscripten'
>>>> +if get_option('tests').allowed() and host_os != 'emscripten'
>>>>     subdir('tests')
>>>>   endif
>>>>   if gtk.found()
>>>> diff --git a/meson_options.txt b/meson_options.txt
>>>> index a07cb47d35..68333ca402 100644
>>>> --- a/meson_options.txt
>>>> +++ b/meson_options.txt
>>>> @@ -43,6 +43,8 @@ option('gdb', type: 'string', value: '',
>>>>   # on the configure script command line.  After adding an option
>>>>   # here make sure to run "make update-buildoptions".
>>>> +option('tests', type: 'feature', value: 'auto',
>>>> +       description: 'Build the test suite')
>>>>   option('docs', type : 'feature', value : 'auto',
>>>>          description: 'Documentations build support')
>>>>   option('fuzzing', type : 'boolean', value: false,
>>>> diff --git a/scripts/meson-buildoptions.sh 
>>>> b/scripts/meson-buildoptions.sh
>>>> index c003985047..3fec13a336 100644
>>>> --- a/scripts/meson-buildoptions.sh
>>>> +++ b/scripts/meson-buildoptions.sh
>>>> @@ -194,6 +194,7 @@ meson_options_help() {
>>>>     printf "%s\n" '  spice-protocol  Spice protocol support'
>>>>     printf "%s\n" '  stack-protector compiler-provided stack protection'
>>>>     printf "%s\n" '  tcg             TCG support'
>>>> +  printf "%s\n" '  tests           build test suite'
>>>>     printf "%s\n" '  tools           build support utilities that come 
>>>> with QEMU'
>>>>     printf "%s\n" '  tpm             TPM support'
>>>>     printf "%s\n" '  u2f             U2F emulation support'
>>>> @@ -515,6 +516,8 @@ _meson_option_parse() {
>>>>       --enable-tcg-interpreter) printf "%s" -Dtcg_interpreter=true ;;
>>>>       --disable-tcg-interpreter) printf "%s" -Dtcg_interpreter=false ;;
>>>>       --tls-priority=*) quote_sh "-Dtls_priority=$2" ;;
>>>> +    --enable-tests) printf "%s" -Dtests=enabled ;;
>>>> +    --disable-tests) printf "%s" -Dtests=disabled ;;
>>>>       --enable-tools) printf "%s" -Dtools=enabled ;;
>>>>       --disable-tools) printf "%s" -Dtools=disabled ;;
>>>>       --enable-tpm) printf "%s" -Dtpm=enabled ;;
>>> 
>>> That's a great addition, including just for speeding up normal builds.
>>> 
>>> Reviewed-by: Pierrick Bouvier <pierrick.bouvier@oss.qualcomm.com>
>>> Tested-by: Pierrick Bouvier <pierrick.bouvier@oss.qualcomm.com>
>>> 
>>> If we want to overengineer the thing, it could be possible to still
>>> declare all tests, but not build them by default. However, it's probably
>>> too error prone and much less simple than this patch. So I don't think
>>> it's a good idea.
>>> 
>>> Regards,
>>> Pierrick
>>> 
>> 
>> When is it useful to build without the provided test suite?
> I sometimes wished indeed for a --disable-tests switch in the past already 
> (was just too lazy to contribute a patch): I'm sometimes building QEMU in a 
> separate directory, just for a very special case like testing a patch with an 
> --enable-asan build, or for doing a "git bisect". In such cases, I never want 
> to run the normal tests since it's simply not necessary. I run the tests from 
> my main build directory instead once I have a final patch and want to 
> contribute it to upstream. So IMHO this patch is a good idea.

I similarly have a local patch for this for such usage, that I never 
cleaned up to submit but I think it's a good idea.

Regards,
BALATON Zoltan

Re: [PATCH] Add option to disable building tests

[Philippe Mathieu-Daudé]

On 27/7/26 13:19, BALATON Zoltan wrote:
> On Mon, 27 Jul 2026, Thomas Huth wrote:
>> On 27/07/2026 10.12, Philippe Mathieu-Daudé wrote:
>>> On 24/7/26 18:45, Pierrick Bouvier wrote:
>>>> On 7/24/2026 6:54 AM, Florian Schmidt wrote:
>>>>> There are situations in which you might want to build QEMU without
>>>>> building the full test suite, which in some configurations can take a
>>>>> considerable amount of time to build. This is especially true when 
>>>>> using
>>>>> LTO with clang. For example:
>>>>>
>>>>> $ ../configure --cc=clang '--extra-ldflags=-flto=thin -ffat-lto- 
>>>>> objects' '--extra-cflags=-flto=thin -ffat-lto-objects' --target- 
>>>>> list=x86_64-softmmu
>>>>> [...]
>>>>> $ time make -j8
>>>>> [...]
>>>>> [3078/3078] Linking target tests/qtest/qos-test
>>>>> real    6m43.250s
>>>>> user    101m15.967s
>>>>> sys     4m3.813s
>>>>>
>>>>> $ ../configure --cc=clang '--extra-ldflags=-flto=thin -ffat-lto- 
>>>>> objects' '--extra-cflags=-flto=thin -ffat-lto-objects' --target- 
>>>>> list=x86_64- softmmu --disable-tests
>>>>> [...]
>>>>> $ time make -j8
>>>>> [...]
>>>>> [2024/2024] Linking target qemu-system-x86_64
>>>>>
>>>>> real    3m14.277s
>>>>> user    33m13.174s
>>>>> sys     1m36.642s
>>>>>
>>>>> Add a toggle to optionally disable building tests.
>>>>>
>>>>> Signed-off-by: Florian Schmidt <flosch@nutanix.com>
>>>>> ---
>>>>>   meson.build                   | 2 +-
>>>>>   meson_options.txt             | 2 ++
>>>>>   scripts/meson-buildoptions.sh | 3 +++
>>>>>   3 files changed, 6 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
>>>>>
>>>>> diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
>>>>> index 49a5baf5b5..ad728c26ec 100644
>>>>> --- a/meson.build
>>>>> +++ b/meson.build
>>>>> @@ -4605,7 +4605,7 @@ subdir('docs')
>>>>>   subdir('pyvenv')
>>>>>   # Tests are disabled on emscripten because they rely on host 
>>>>> features that aren't
>>>>>   # supported by emscripten (e.g. fork and unix socket).
>>>>> -if host_os != 'emscripten'
>>>>> +if get_option('tests').allowed() and host_os != 'emscripten'
>>>>>     subdir('tests')
>>>>>   endif
>>>>>   if gtk.found()
>>>>> diff --git a/meson_options.txt b/meson_options.txt
>>>>> index a07cb47d35..68333ca402 100644
>>>>> --- a/meson_options.txt
>>>>> +++ b/meson_options.txt
>>>>> @@ -43,6 +43,8 @@ option('gdb', type: 'string', value: '',
>>>>>   # on the configure script command line.  After adding an option
>>>>>   # here make sure to run "make update-buildoptions".
>>>>> +option('tests', type: 'feature', value: 'auto',
>>>>> +       description: 'Build the test suite')
>>>>>   option('docs', type : 'feature', value : 'auto',
>>>>>          description: 'Documentations build support')
>>>>>   option('fuzzing', type : 'boolean', value: false,
>>>>> diff --git a/scripts/meson-buildoptions.sh b/scripts/meson- 
>>>>> buildoptions.sh
>>>>> index c003985047..3fec13a336 100644
>>>>> --- a/scripts/meson-buildoptions.sh
>>>>> +++ b/scripts/meson-buildoptions.sh
>>>>> @@ -194,6 +194,7 @@ meson_options_help() {
>>>>>     printf "%s\n" '  spice-protocol  Spice protocol support'
>>>>>     printf "%s\n" '  stack-protector compiler-provided stack 
>>>>> protection'
>>>>>     printf "%s\n" '  tcg             TCG support'
>>>>> +  printf "%s\n" '  tests           build test suite'
>>>>>     printf "%s\n" '  tools           build support utilities that 
>>>>> come with QEMU'
>>>>>     printf "%s\n" '  tpm             TPM support'
>>>>>     printf "%s\n" '  u2f             U2F emulation support'
>>>>> @@ -515,6 +516,8 @@ _meson_option_parse() {
>>>>>       --enable-tcg-interpreter) printf "%s" -Dtcg_interpreter=true ;;
>>>>>       --disable-tcg-interpreter) printf "%s" - 
>>>>> Dtcg_interpreter=false ;;
>>>>>       --tls-priority=*) quote_sh "-Dtls_priority=$2" ;;
>>>>> +    --enable-tests) printf "%s" -Dtests=enabled ;;
>>>>> +    --disable-tests) printf "%s" -Dtests=disabled ;;
>>>>>       --enable-tools) printf "%s" -Dtools=enabled ;;
>>>>>       --disable-tools) printf "%s" -Dtools=disabled ;;
>>>>>       --enable-tpm) printf "%s" -Dtpm=enabled ;;
>>>>
>>>> That's a great addition, including just for speeding up normal builds.
>>>>
>>>> Reviewed-by: Pierrick Bouvier <pierrick.bouvier@oss.qualcomm.com>
>>>> Tested-by: Pierrick Bouvier <pierrick.bouvier@oss.qualcomm.com>
>>>>
>>>> If we want to overengineer the thing, it could be possible to still
>>>> declare all tests, but not build them by default. However, it's 
>>>> probably
>>>> too error prone and much less simple than this patch. So I don't think
>>>> it's a good idea.
>>>>
>>>> Regards,
>>>> Pierrick
>>>>
>>>
>>> When is it useful to build without the provided test suite?
>> I sometimes wished indeed for a --disable-tests switch in the past 
>> already (was just too lazy to contribute a patch): I'm sometimes 
>> building QEMU in a separate directory, just for a very special case 
>> like testing a patch with an --enable-asan build, or for doing a "git 
>> bisect". In such cases, I never want to run the normal tests since 
>> it's simply not necessary. I run the tests from my main build 
>> directory instead once I have a final patch and want to contribute it 
>> to upstream. So IMHO this patch is a good idea.
> 
> I similarly have a local patch for this for such usage, that I never 
> cleaned up to submit but I think it's a good idea.

I'm not saying this patch is a bad idea, I'll likely use it too;
I want to clarify what are the valid use cases the community sees
here. Building pointless things clearly has a negative impact on
resources and our time, but not testing changes also has.
IOW in somes cases this change is acceptable, but I'm a little wary
on massive use by default.

Anyway I didn't wanted to start yet another endless discussion so I
won't intervene further in this thread, sorry for the usual noise.

Re: [PATCH] Add option to disable building tests

[Fabiano Rosas]

Philippe Mathieu-Daudé <philmd@oss.qualcomm.com> writes:

> On 27/7/26 13:19, BALATON Zoltan wrote:
>> On Mon, 27 Jul 2026, Thomas Huth wrote:
>>> On 27/07/2026 10.12, Philippe Mathieu-Daudé wrote:
>>>> On 24/7/26 18:45, Pierrick Bouvier wrote:
>>>>> On 7/24/2026 6:54 AM, Florian Schmidt wrote:
>>>>>> There are situations in which you might want to build QEMU without
>>>>>> building the full test suite, which in some configurations can take a
>>>>>> considerable amount of time to build. This is especially true when 
>>>>>> using
>>>>>> LTO with clang. For example:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> $ ../configure --cc=clang '--extra-ldflags=-flto=thin -ffat-lto- 
>>>>>> objects' '--extra-cflags=-flto=thin -ffat-lto-objects' --target- 
>>>>>> list=x86_64-softmmu
>>>>>> [...]
>>>>>> $ time make -j8
>>>>>> [...]
>>>>>> [3078/3078] Linking target tests/qtest/qos-test
>>>>>> real    6m43.250s
>>>>>> user    101m15.967s
>>>>>> sys     4m3.813s
>>>>>>
>>>>>> $ ../configure --cc=clang '--extra-ldflags=-flto=thin -ffat-lto- 
>>>>>> objects' '--extra-cflags=-flto=thin -ffat-lto-objects' --target- 
>>>>>> list=x86_64- softmmu --disable-tests
>>>>>> [...]
>>>>>> $ time make -j8
>>>>>> [...]
>>>>>> [2024/2024] Linking target qemu-system-x86_64
>>>>>>
>>>>>> real    3m14.277s
>>>>>> user    33m13.174s
>>>>>> sys     1m36.642s
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Add a toggle to optionally disable building tests.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Signed-off-by: Florian Schmidt <flosch@nutanix.com>
>>>>>> ---
>>>>>>   meson.build                   | 2 +-
>>>>>>   meson_options.txt             | 2 ++
>>>>>>   scripts/meson-buildoptions.sh | 3 +++
>>>>>>   3 files changed, 6 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
>>>>>>
>>>>>> diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
>>>>>> index 49a5baf5b5..ad728c26ec 100644
>>>>>> --- a/meson.build
>>>>>> +++ b/meson.build
>>>>>> @@ -4605,7 +4605,7 @@ subdir('docs')
>>>>>>   subdir('pyvenv')
>>>>>>   # Tests are disabled on emscripten because they rely on host 
>>>>>> features that aren't
>>>>>>   # supported by emscripten (e.g. fork and unix socket).
>>>>>> -if host_os != 'emscripten'
>>>>>> +if get_option('tests').allowed() and host_os != 'emscripten'
>>>>>>     subdir('tests')
>>>>>>   endif
>>>>>>   if gtk.found()
>>>>>> diff --git a/meson_options.txt b/meson_options.txt
>>>>>> index a07cb47d35..68333ca402 100644
>>>>>> --- a/meson_options.txt
>>>>>> +++ b/meson_options.txt
>>>>>> @@ -43,6 +43,8 @@ option('gdb', type: 'string', value: '',
>>>>>>   # on the configure script command line.  After adding an option
>>>>>>   # here make sure to run "make update-buildoptions".
>>>>>> +option('tests', type: 'feature', value: 'auto',
>>>>>> +       description: 'Build the test suite')
>>>>>>   option('docs', type : 'feature', value : 'auto',
>>>>>>          description: 'Documentations build support')
>>>>>>   option('fuzzing', type : 'boolean', value: false,
>>>>>> diff --git a/scripts/meson-buildoptions.sh b/scripts/meson- 
>>>>>> buildoptions.sh
>>>>>> index c003985047..3fec13a336 100644
>>>>>> --- a/scripts/meson-buildoptions.sh
>>>>>> +++ b/scripts/meson-buildoptions.sh
>>>>>> @@ -194,6 +194,7 @@ meson_options_help() {
>>>>>>     printf "%s\n" '  spice-protocol  Spice protocol support'
>>>>>>     printf "%s\n" '  stack-protector compiler-provided stack 
>>>>>> protection'
>>>>>>     printf "%s\n" '  tcg             TCG support'
>>>>>> +  printf "%s\n" '  tests           build test suite'
>>>>>>     printf "%s\n" '  tools           build support utilities that 
>>>>>> come with QEMU'
>>>>>>     printf "%s\n" '  tpm             TPM support'
>>>>>>     printf "%s\n" '  u2f             U2F emulation support'
>>>>>> @@ -515,6 +516,8 @@ _meson_option_parse() {
>>>>>>       --enable-tcg-interpreter) printf "%s" -Dtcg_interpreter=true ;;
>>>>>>       --disable-tcg-interpreter) printf "%s" - 
>>>>>> Dtcg_interpreter=false ;;
>>>>>>       --tls-priority=*) quote_sh "-Dtls_priority=$2" ;;
>>>>>> +    --enable-tests) printf "%s" -Dtests=enabled ;;
>>>>>> +    --disable-tests) printf "%s" -Dtests=disabled ;;
>>>>>>       --enable-tools) printf "%s" -Dtools=enabled ;;
>>>>>>       --disable-tools) printf "%s" -Dtools=disabled ;;
>>>>>>       --enable-tpm) printf "%s" -Dtpm=enabled ;;
>>>>>
>>>>> That's a great addition, including just for speeding up normal builds.
>>>>>
>>>>> Reviewed-by: Pierrick Bouvier <pierrick.bouvier@oss.qualcomm.com>
>>>>> Tested-by: Pierrick Bouvier <pierrick.bouvier@oss.qualcomm.com>
>>>>>
>>>>> If we want to overengineer the thing, it could be possible to still
>>>>> declare all tests, but not build them by default. However, it's 
>>>>> probably
>>>>> too error prone and much less simple than this patch. So I don't think
>>>>> it's a good idea.
>>>>>
>>>>> Regards,
>>>>> Pierrick
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> When is it useful to build without the provided test suite?
>>> I sometimes wished indeed for a --disable-tests switch in the past 
>>> already (was just too lazy to contribute a patch): I'm sometimes 
>>> building QEMU in a separate directory, just for a very special case 
>>> like testing a patch with an --enable-asan build, or for doing a "git 
>>> bisect". In such cases, I never want to run the normal tests since 
>>> it's simply not necessary. I run the tests from my main build 
>>> directory instead once I have a final patch and want to contribute it 
>>> to upstream. So IMHO this patch is a good idea.
>> 
>> I similarly have a local patch for this for such usage, that I never 
>> cleaned up to submit but I think it's a good idea.
>
> I'm not saying this patch is a bad idea, I'll likely use it too;
> I want to clarify what are the valid use cases the community sees
> here. Building pointless things clearly has a negative impact on
> resources and our time, but not testing changes also has.

Perhaps we could add something to checkpatch that emits an error if
config-status has --disable-tests.

> IOW in somes cases this change is acceptable, but I'm a little wary
> on massive use by default.
>
> Anyway I didn't wanted to start yet another endless discussion so I
> won't intervene further in this thread, sorry for the usual noise.

I think we'd rather have your comments and everyone else's, there's no
deadline for anything.

Re: [PATCH] Add option to disable building tests

[Peter Maydell]

On Mon, 27 Jul 2026 at 16:16, Fabiano Rosas <farosas@suse.de> wrote:
>
> Philippe Mathieu-Daudé <philmd@oss.qualcomm.com> writes:
> > I'm not saying this patch is a bad idea, I'll likely use it too;
> > I want to clarify what are the valid use cases the community sees
> > here. Building pointless things clearly has a negative impact on
> > resources and our time, but not testing changes also has.
>
> Perhaps we could add something to checkpatch that emits an error if
> config-status has --disable-tests.

I think that's probably overkill. People who don't run tests
are much more likely to be doing it by simply not running
"make check" and "make check-functional" than by using this new
--disable-tests configure option :-)

I think if --disable-tests isn't the default then that's enough
to mean that it only gets used for the situations where it matters
to cut down that build time (like the bisection-test cases etc).

(Also, checkpatch runs in a source tree and can't know about
configure options, which are per-build-tree.)

thanks
-- PMM

Re: [PATCH] Add option to disable building tests

[Helge Deller]

On 7/27/26 17:23, Peter Maydell wrote:
> On Mon, 27 Jul 2026 at 16:16, Fabiano Rosas <farosas@suse.de> wrote:
>>
>> Philippe Mathieu-Daudé <philmd@oss.qualcomm.com> writes:
>>> I'm not saying this patch is a bad idea, I'll likely use it too;
>>> I want to clarify what are the valid use cases the community sees
>>> here. Building pointless things clearly has a negative impact on
>>> resources and our time, but not testing changes also has.
>>
>> Perhaps we could add something to checkpatch that emits an error if
>> config-status has --disable-tests.
> 
> I think that's probably overkill. People who don't run tests
> are much more likely to be doing it by simply not running
> "make check" and "make check-functional" than by using this new
> --disable-tests configure option :-)
> 
> I think if --disable-tests isn't the default then that's enough
> to mean that it only gets used for the situations where it matters
> to cut down that build time (like the bisection-test cases etc).
+1 from me:
Add "--disable-tests", but don't make it default.

Those tests just stole lots of my time while running git-bisect.....

Helge