[Qemu-devel] Re: [PATCH 1/2] QMP: Introduce the documentation for query-qdm

[Miguel Di Ciurcio Filho]

On Mon, Jul 5, 2010 at 12:22 PM, Luiz Capitulino <address@hidden> wrote:
>> +
>> +Describe the capabilities of all devices registered with qdev.
>> +
>> +The returned output is a list, each element is a json-object describing a 
>> single
>> +device type.
>
> s/The returned output is a list/The returned value is a json-array
>

Ack.

>> +
>> +Each json-object contains the following:
>> +
>> +- "name": the short name of the device (json-string)
>
> Why short? Isn't it the name itself?

Yeah, it is just the a name. I think the initial use for "short" from
Daniel was to distinguish from "name" and "description".

>
>> +- "bus": the name of the bus type for the device (json-string)
>
> Do we need a list o possible values?
>

I didn't find a central location for all the possible values. Although
running `egrep -C1 "static struct BusInfo" *.c` shows most names, I
hope. Does anyone more experienced could confirm that this is how I
can find out all bus types?

>> +- "alias": an alias by which the device is also known (json-string, 
>> optional)
>> +- "description": a long description the device  (json-string, optional)
>> +- "creatable": whether this device can be created on command line 
>> (json-boolean)
>> +- "props": a list where each element is an json-object that describes a 
>> property
>> +of the device. Each json-object contains the following:
>
> Suggest using "properties" (vs. "props")

Better indeed, ack.

>
>> +     - "name": the short name of the property (json-string)
>
> Why short? Isn't it the name itself?
>

No need for short here, IMHO. Ack.

>> +     - "info": short description of the property (json-string)
>
> You sure it's a description of the property? It seems to describe how to
> set it (related, but slightly different).
>
> Also, most of the time it seems to be an exact copy of "type". I suggest
> to make it optional and only show it when it differs from "type".
>
>> +     - "type": the data type of the property value (json-string)
>

Looking deeper into it I think it is a bit clear now.

DeviceInfo
    |__Property
    |       | char name
    |       | PropertyInfo info
    |               |  char name
    |               |  enum PropertyType type
    |__Property
            | char name
            | PropertyInfo info
                    |  char name
                    |  enum PropertyType type

So, for something like this:

"properties": [
             {
                 "name": "indirect_desc",
                 "type": "bit",
                 "info": "on/off"
             },

"name" is Property->name
"type" is Property->info->type
"info" is Property->info->name

"name" and "type" are relevant, but I think "info" is not.

e.g.:
$ qemu -device e1000,?
e1000.mac=macaddr
e1000.vlan=vlan
e1000.netdev=netdev

The strings after the "=" sign come from Property->info->name. So, I
think the attribute "info" is really not needed.

> We need a list o possible values, with a small explanation of each one.
> Do we need the equivalent in json too?

Possible values for "type" are defined in the patch on the
qdev_property_type_to_string() function. To spot them in the current
code, hw/qdev.c:77:

enum PropertyType {
    PROP_TYPE_UNSPEC = 0,
    PROP_TYPE_UINT8,
    PROP_TYPE_UINT16,
    PROP_TYPE_UINT32,
    PROP_TYPE_INT32,
    PROP_TYPE_UINT64,
    PROP_TYPE_TADDR,
    PROP_TYPE_MACADDR,
    PROP_TYPE_DRIVE,
    PROP_TYPE_CHR,
    PROP_TYPE_STRING,
    PROP_TYPE_NETDEV,
    PROP_TYPE_VLAN,
    PROP_TYPE_PTR,
    PROP_TYPE_BIT,
};

So it is a mix of json-(string|integer|boolean). It seams to me that a
device_add using QMP will use just use strings. Need to confirm that.

>
> Suggest a NOTE saying this the equivalent of command-line options -device ?

Ack.

Regards,

Miguel