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

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