Re: [PATCH v2 7/7] buildsys: Remove support for 32-bit MIPS hosts

["Philippe Mathieu-Daudé" <philmd@linaro.org>]

On 10/10/25 10:46, Daniel P. Berrangé wrote:
> On Thu, Oct 09, 2025 at 09:52:10PM +0200, Philippe Mathieu-Daudé wrote:
>> Stop detecting 32-bit MIPS host as supported, update the
>> deprecation document. See previous commit for rationale.
>>
>> Signed-off-by: Philippe Mathieu-Daudé <philmd@linaro.org>
>> ---
>>   docs/about/deprecated.rst       | 13 +++++--------
>>   docs/about/removed-features.rst |  6 ++++++
>>   configure                       |  7 -------
>>   3 files changed, 11 insertions(+), 15 deletions(-)
>>
>> diff --git a/docs/about/deprecated.rst b/docs/about/deprecated.rst
>> index 67e527740c0..79cc34cfeb6 100644
>> --- a/docs/about/deprecated.rst
>> +++ b/docs/about/deprecated.rst
>> @@ -172,17 +172,14 @@ This argument has always been ignored.
>>   Host Architectures
>>   ------------------
>>   
>> -Big endian MIPS since 7.2; 32-bit little endian MIPS since 9.2, MIPS since 11.0
> 
> Did 'Big endian MIPS' refer to 32-bit, or both 32 & 64-bit ?  I'm guessing
> it was only 32-bit BE, given the heading of your removed-features.txt
> change.

Both.

* 7.2 deprecated:

   - 32-bit big endian MIPS host
   - 64-bit big endian MIPS host

   Not deprecated remaining:

   - 32-bit little endian MIPS host
   - 64-bit little endian MIPS host

* 9.2 deprecated:

   - 32-bit little endian MIPS host

   Not deprecated remaining:

   - 64-bit little endian MIPS host

* 11.0 deprecated:

   - 64-bit little endian MIPS host

   No non-deprecated MIPS host remaining

As of 11.0 we can remove what was deprecated previous 10.1.

> 
> But then did "MIPS since 11.0" refer to 64-bit little endian only, or
> both big & little endian for 64-bit ?
> 
> Given the wide variety of things all ambiguously called "MIPS",
> its worth being explicit....
> 
>> -'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
>> +MIPS (since 11.0)
>> +'''''''''''''''''
> 
> ...so if this is 64-bit MIPS, big & little endian, lets say so
I'll update to "64-bit little endian MIPS".

> 
>>   
>> -As Debian 10 ("Buster") moved into LTS the big endian 32 bit version of
>> -MIPS moved out of support making it hard to maintain our
>> -cross-compilation CI tests of the architecture. As we no longer have
>> -CI coverage support may bitrot away before the deprecation process
>> +MIPS is not supported by Debian 13 ("Trixie") and newer, making it hard to
>> +maintain our cross-compilation CI tests of the architecture. As we no longer
>> +have CI coverage support may bitrot away before the deprecation process
>>   completes.
>>   
>> -Likewise, MIPS is not supported by Debian 13 ("Trixie") and newer.
>> -
>>   System emulation on 32-bit x86 hosts (since 8.0)
>>   ''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
>>   
>> diff --git a/docs/about/removed-features.rst b/docs/about/removed-features.rst
>> index a5338e44c24..53829f59e65 100644
>> --- a/docs/about/removed-features.rst
>> +++ b/docs/about/removed-features.rst
>> @@ -896,6 +896,12 @@ work around the atomicity issues in system mode by running all vCPUs
>>   in a single thread context; in user mode atomicity was simply broken.
>>   From 10.0, QEMU has disabled configuration of 64-bit guests on 32-bit hosts.
>>   
>> +32-bit MIPS (since 11.0)
>> +''''''''''''''''''''''''
>> +
>> +Debian 12 "Bookworm" removed support for 32-bit MIPS, making it hard to
>> +maintain our cross-compilation CI tests of the architecture.
>> +
>>   Guest Emulator ISAs
>>   -------------------