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5 <h1>Supported host platforms
</h1>
12 Libvirt drivers aim to support building and executing on multiple
13 host OS platforms. This document outlines which platforms are the
14 major build targets. These platforms are used as the basis for deciding
15 upon the minimum required versions of
3rd party software libvirt depends
16 on. If a platform is not listed here, it does not imply that libvirt
17 won't work. If an unlisted platform has comparable software versions
18 to a listed platform, there is every expectation that it will work.
19 Bug reports are welcome for problems encountered on unlisted platforms
20 unless they are clearly older vintage than what is described here.
24 Note that when considering software versions shipped in distros as
25 support targets, libvirt considers only the version number, and assumes
26 the features in that distro match the upstream release with the same
27 version. In other words, if a distro backports extra features to the
28 software in their distro, libvirt upstream code will not add explicit
29 support for those backports, unless the feature is auto-detectable in
30 a manner that works for the upstream releases too.
34 The Repology site is a useful resource to identify currently shipped
35 versions of software in various operating systems, though it does not
36 cover all distros listed below.
40 <li><a href=
"https://repology.org/metapackage/libvirt/versions">libvirt
</a></li>
41 <li><a href=
"https://repology.org/metapackage/qemu/versions">qemu
</a></li>
42 <li><a href=
"https://repology.org/metapackage/qemu-kvm/versions">qemu-kvm
</a></li>
49 For distributions with frequent, short-lifetime releases, the project
50 will aim to support all versions that are not end of life by their
51 respective vendors. For the purposes of identifying supported software
52 versions, the project will look at Fedora, Ubuntu, and openSUSE distros.
53 Other short-lifetime distros will be assumed to ship similar software
58 For distributions with long-lifetime releases, the project will aim to
59 support the most recent major version at all times. Support for the
60 previous major version will be dropped
2 years after the new major
61 version is released. For the purposes of identifying supported software
62 versions, the project will look at RHEL, Debian, Ubuntu LTS, and SLES
63 distros. Other long-lifetime distros will be assumed to ship similar
70 The project supports building with current versions of the MinGW
71 toolchain, hosted on Linux.
77 The project supports building with the current version of macOS,
78 with the current homebrew package set available.
84 The project aims to support the most recent major version
85 at all times. Support for the previous major version will
86 be dropped
2 years after the new major version is released.
89 <h2>Virtualization platforms
</h2>
92 For
<a href=
"drivers.html">hypervisor drivers
</a> which execute
93 locally (QEMU, LXC, VZ, libxl, etc), the set of supported operating
94 system platforms listed above will inform choices as to the minimum
95 required versions of
3rd party libraries and hypervisor management
99 If a hypervisor is not commonly shipped directly by any distro
100 listed above, (VMware ESX, HyperV, VZ), the project aims to
101 support versions up to
5 years, or until the vendor discontinues
102 support, whichever comes first.