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The OpenPOWER Host OS is an open source project that consists of a set of software components, including the Linux kernel and KVM virtualization technologies such as QEMU, with added code to provide support for OpenPOWER hardware.
The project provides the core components and a simple build framework that allows the packaging and installation atop a traditional GNU/Linux distribution with the intent of facilitating development/experimentation with POWER.
Explore our [latest release]({{ latest_release.url }}). {% if latest_release.highlights %} Here are its highlights:
{{ latest_release.highlights }} {% endif %}
Host OS delivers a packaged version of a set of open source projects, installable over a GNU/Linux distribution. The list of Host OS components is (without dependencies):
kernel\ qemu\ libvirt\ ppc64-diag\ libvpd\ lsvpd\ libservicelog\ servicelog\ SLOF
The project as a whole has an independent versioning not tied to the schedules of individual components.
Development versions are periodically built and validated via a test suite. The latest tested tag is [{{ latest_devel.release_tag }}]({{ latest_devel.url }}). The full list of development tags is here. For released tags, look here.
About every 6 months a tag containing a more significant set of features is promoted to stable. The current stable tag is [{{ latest_stable.release_tag }}]({{ latest_stable.url }}).
The [Quick Start guide]({{ builds_repo }}/blob/master/README.md) explains how you can create packages ready for installation on CentOS and optionally a bootable Host OS ISO file.
Host OS components are packaged by a [build script]({{ builds_repo }}) that reads from a git repository containing packages [metadata]({{ versions_repo }}). You are encouraged to build your own version and experiment with the various components and their features.
During your exploration time with POWER and Host OS, feel free to ask questions, raise issues, contribute code and interact with the packages maintainers.
One way to share your ideas, specially when regarding single Host OS components, is via the "Issues" page at the component's GitHub repository.
For those wishing to continuously develop and build packages on top of Host OS, the [tests]({{ tests_repo }}) and [infrastructure]({{ infra_repo }}) repositories will be of use in reproducing the build system and test infrastructure.
IRC: #hostos @freenode\ email: [email protected] (subscription link)
\ Other references:\ 1- https://developer.ibm.com/open/openprojects/openpower-host-os/