[Qemu-devel] [PATCH v5 01/28] qapi: Document type-safety considerations

[Eric Blake]

Go into more details about the various types of valid expressions
in a qapi schema, including tweaks to document fixes being done
later in the current patch series.  Also fix some stale and missing
documentation in the QMP specification.

Signed-off-by: Eric Blake <address@hidden>

---

I'm not sure if it is okay to assert GPLv2+ licensing without an
explicit Copyright, but as I am not the original author, I don't
know who to attribute any original Copyright to.  Advice?  Should
I split the license addition to a separate patch?
---
 docs/qapi-code-gen.txt | 338 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++---------
 docs/qmp/qmp-spec.txt  |  92 +++++++++++---
 2 files changed, 350 insertions(+), 80 deletions(-)

diff --git a/docs/qapi-code-gen.txt b/docs/qapi-code-gen.txt
index 8313ba6..ce9c4b9 100644
--- a/docs/qapi-code-gen.txt
+++ b/docs/qapi-code-gen.txt
@@ -1,17 +1,18 @@
+This document is licensed under the GPLv2 (or later).
+
 = How to use the QAPI code generator =

 QAPI is a native C API within QEMU which provides management-level
-functionality to internal/external users. For external
+functionality to internal and external users. For external
 users/processes, this interface is made available by a JSON-based
 QEMU Monitor protocol that is provided by the QMP server.

-To map QMP-defined interfaces to the native C QAPI implementations,
-a JSON-based schema is used to define types and function
-signatures, and a set of scripts is used to generate types/signatures,
-and marshaling/dispatch code. The QEMU Guest Agent also uses these
-scripts, paired with a separate schema, to generate
-marshaling/dispatch code for the guest agent server running in the
-guest.
+To map QMP-defined interfaces to the native C QAPI implementations, a
+JSON-based schema is used to define types and function signatures, and
+a set of scripts is used to generate types, signatures, and
+marshaling/dispatch code. The QEMU Guest Agent also uses these
+scripts, paired with a separate schema, to generate marshaling and
+dispatch code for the guest agent server running in the guest.

 This document will describe how the schemas, scripts, and resulting
 code are used.
@@ -22,40 +23,150 @@ code are used.
 This file defines the types, commands, and events used by QMP.  It should
 fully describe the interface used by QMP.

-This file is designed to be loosely based on JSON although it's technically
-executable Python.  While dictionaries are used, they are parsed as
-OrderedDicts so that ordering is preserved.
+A QAPI file is designed to be loosely based on JSON, which is then
+parsed by a python code generation program.  A valid QAPI schema
+consists of a list of top-level expressions, with no commas between
+them.  Where dictionaries are used, they are parsed as OrderedDicts so
+that ordering is preserved (for predictable layout of generated C
+structs and parameter lists).  Ordering doesn't matter for top-level
+expressions, but does matter within 'data' members of a single
+expression.  QAPI input is written using 'single quotes' instead of
+JSON's "double quotes" (in contrast, QMP is strict JSON and only uses
+"double quotes").  As in JSON, trailing commas are not permitted in
+arrays or dictionaries.  Input must be ASCII (although QMP supports
+full Unicode strings, the QAPI parser does not).

-There are two basic syntaxes used, type definitions and command definitions.
+Comments are allowed; anything between an unquoted # and the following
+newline is ignored.  Although there is not yet a documentation
+generator, a form of stylized comments has developed for consistently
+documenting details about an expression and when it was added to the
+schema.  The documentation is delimited between two lines of ##, then
+the first line names the expression, an optional overview is provided,
+then individual documentation about each member of 'data' is provided,
+and finally, a 'Since: x.y.z' tag lists the release that introduced
+the expression.  Optional fields are tagged with the phrase
+'#optional', often with their default value; and extensions added
+after the expression was first released are also given a '(since
+x.y.z)' comment.  For example:

-The first syntax defines a type and is represented by a dictionary.  There are
-three kinds of user-defined types that are supported: complex types,
-enumeration types and union types.
+    ##
+    # @BlockStats:
+    #
+    # Statistics of a virtual block device or a block backing device.
+    #
+    # @device: #optional If the stats are for a virtual block device, the name
+    #          corresponding to the virtual block device.
+    #
+    # @stats:  A @BlockDeviceStats for the device.
+    #
+    # @parent: #optional This describes the file block device if it has one.
+    #
+    # @backing: #optional This describes the backing block device if it has 
one.
+    #           (Since 2.0)
+    #
+    # Since: 0.14.0
+    ##
+    { 'type': 'BlockStats',
+      'data': {'*device': 'str', 'stats': 'BlockDeviceStats',
+               '*parent': 'BlockStats',
+               '*backing': 'BlockStats'} }

-Generally speaking, types definitions should always use CamelCase for the type
-names. Command names should be all lower case with words separated by a hyphen.
+The schema sets up a series of types, as well as commands and events
+that will use those types.  Forward references are allowed: the parser
+scans in two passes, where the first pass learns all type names, and
+the second validates the schema and generates the code.  This allows
+the definition of complex structs that can have mutually recursive
+types, and allows for indefinite nesting of QMP that satisfies the
+schema.  A type name should not be defined more than once.

+There are six top-level expressions recognized by the parser:
+'include', 'command', 'type', 'enum', 'union', and 'event'.  There are
+several built-in types, such as 'int' and 'str'; additionally, the
+top-level expressions can define complex types, enumeration types, and
+several flavors of union types.  The 'command' expression can refer to
+existing types by name, or list an anonymous type as a dictionary.
+Listing a type name inside an array refers to a single-dimension array
+of that type; multi-dimension arrays are not directly supported
+(although an array of a complex struct that contains an array member
+is possible).
+
+Types, commands, and events share a common namespace.  Therefore,
+generally speaking, type definitions should always use CamelCase for
+user-defined type names, while built-in types are lowercase. Type
+definitions should not end in 'Kind', as this namespace is used for
+creating implicit C enums for visiting union types.  Command names,
+and field names within a type, should be all lower case with words
+separated by a hyphen.  However, some existing older commands and
+complex types use underscore; when extending such expressions,
+consistency is preferred over blindly avoiding underscore.  Event
+names should be ALL_CAPS with words separated by underscore.  The
+special string '**' appears for some commands that manually perform
+their own type checking rather than relying on the type-safe code
+produced by the qapi code generators.
+
+Any command, type, or field name beginning with "x-" is marked
+experimental, and may be withdrawn or changed incompatibly in a future
+release.  Downstream vendors may add extensions; such extensions
+should begin with a prefix matching "__RFQDN_" (for the
+reverse-fully-qualified-domain-name of the vendor), even if the rest
+of the command or field name uses dash (example:
+__com.redhat_drive-mirror).  Other than the dots used in RFQDN of a
+downstream extension, all command, type, and field names should begin
+with a letter, and contain only ASCII letters, numbers, dash, and
+underscore.  It is okay to reuse names that match C keywords; the
+generator will rename a field named "default" in the QAPI to
+"q_default" in the generated C code.
+
+
+=== Built-in Types ===
+
+The following types are built-in to the parser:
+  'str' - arbitrary UTF-8 string
+  'int' - 64-bit signed integer (although the C code may place further
+          restrictions on acceptable range)
+  'number' - floating point number
+  'bool' - JSON value of true or false
+  'int8', 'int16', 'int32', 'int64' - like 'int', but enforce maximum
+                                      bit size
+  'uint8', 'uint16', 'uint32', 'uint64' - unsigned counterparts
+  'size' - like 'uint64', but allows scaled suffix from command line
+           visitor

 === Includes ===

+Usage: { 'include': 'str' }
+
 The QAPI schema definitions can be modularized using the 'include' directive:

  { 'include': 'path/to/file.json'}

 The directive is evaluated recursively, and include paths are relative to the
-file using the directive. Multiple includes of the same file are safe.
+file using the directive. Multiple includes of the same file are
+safe.  No other keys should appear in the expression, and the include
+value should be a string.
+
+As a matter of style, it is a good idea to have all files be
+self-contained, but at the moment, nothing prevents an included file
+from making a forward reference to a type that is only introduced by
+an outer file.  The parser may be made stricter in the future to
+prevent incomplete include files.


 === Complex types ===

-A complex type is a dictionary containing a single key whose value is a
-dictionary.  This corresponds to a struct in C or an Object in JSON.  An
-example of a complex type is:
+Usage: { 'type': 'str', 'data': 'dict', '*base': 'complex-type-name' }
+
+A complex type is a dictionary containing a single 'data' key whose
+value is a dictionary.  This corresponds to a struct in C or an Object
+in JSON. Each value of the 'data' dictionary must be the name of a
+complex, enum, union, or built-in type, or a one-element array
+containing a type name.  An example of a complex type is:

  { 'type': 'MyType',
    'data': { 'member1': 'str', 'member2': 'int', '*member3': 'str' } }

-The use of '*' as a prefix to the name means the member is optional.
+The use of '*' as a prefix to the name means the member is optional in
+the corresponding QMP usage.

 The default initialization value of an optional argument should not be changed
 between versions of QEMU unless the new default maintains backward
@@ -100,22 +211,52 @@ both fields like this:
  { "file": "/some/place/my-image",
    "backing": "/some/place/my-backing-file" }

+
 === Enumeration types ===

-An enumeration type is a dictionary containing a single key whose value is a
-list of strings.  An example enumeration is:
+Usage: { 'enum': 'str', 'data': [ 'str' ] }
+
+An enumeration type is a dictionary containing a single 'data' key
+whose value is a list of strings.  An example enumeration is:

  { 'enum': 'MyEnum', 'data': [ 'value1', 'value2', 'value3' ] }

+Nothing prevents an empty enumeration, although it is probably not
+useful.  The list of strings should be lower case; if an enum name
+represents multiple words, use '-' between words.  The string 'max' is
+not allowed as an enum value, and values should not be repeated.
+
+The enumeration values are passed as strings over the QMP protocol,
+but are encoded as C enum integral values in generated code.  While
+the C code starts numbering at 0, it is better to use explicit
+comparisons to enum values than implicit comparisons to 0; the C code
+will also include a generated enum member ending in _MAX for tracking
+the size of the enum, useful when using common functions for
+converting between strings and enum values.  Since the wire format
+always passes by name, it is acceptable to reorder or add new
+enumeration members in any location without breaking QMP clients;
+however, removing enum values would break compatibility.  For any
+complex type that has a field that will only contain a finite set of
+string values, using an enum type for that field is better than
+open-coding the field to be type 'str'.
+
+
 === Union types ===

-Union types are used to let the user choose between several different data
-types.  A union type is defined using a dictionary as explained in the
-following paragraphs.
+Usage: { 'union': 'str', 'data': 'dict' }
+or:    { 'union': 'str', 'data': 'dict', 'base': 'complex-type-name',
+         'discriminator': 'enum-member-of-base' }
+or:    { 'union': 'str', 'data': 'dict', 'discriminator': {} }

+Union types are used to let the user choose between several different
+data types.  There are three flavors: simple (no discriminator), flat
+(a base type is mandatory, and discriminator is the name of an enum
+field within that base type), and anonymous (discriminator is an
+empty dictionary).  A union type is defined using a data dictionary as
+explained in the following paragraphs.

-A simple union type defines a mapping from discriminator values to data types
-like in this example:
+A simple union type defines a mapping from automatic discriminator
+values to data types like in this example:

  { 'type': 'FileOptions', 'data': { 'filename': 'str' } }
  { 'type': 'Qcow2Options',
@@ -132,10 +273,17 @@ specified data type corresponding to the discriminator 
value:
  { "type": "qcow2", "data" : { "backing-file": "/some/place/my-image",
                                "lazy-refcounts": true } }

+Additionally, an implicit C enum NameKind is created, corresponding to
+the union Name, for accessing the various branches of the union.  No
+branch of the union can be named 'max', as this would collide with the
+implicit enum.

-A union definition can specify a complex type as its base. In this case, the
-fields of the complex type are included as top-level fields of the union
-dictionary in the QMP wire format. An example definition is:
+
+A flat union definition specifies a complex type as its base, and
+avoids nesting on the wire.  In this case, the fields of the complex
+type are included as top-level fields of the union dictionary in the
+QMP wire format, and the 'discriminator' field must be the name of an
+enum-typed member of the base type. An example definition is:

  { 'type': 'BlockdevCommonOptions', 'data': { 'readonly': 'bool' } }
  { 'union': 'BlockdevOptions',
@@ -150,11 +298,11 @@ And it looks like this on the wire:
    "data" : { "backing-file": "/some/place/my-image",
               "lazy-refcounts": true } }

-
-Flat union types avoid the nesting on the wire. They are used whenever a
-specific field of the base type is declared as the discriminator ('type' is
-then no longer generated). The discriminator must be of enumeration type.
-The above example can then be modified as follows:
+Notice that in a flat union, a 'type' field is no longer generated,
+and the keys of the 'data' dictionary must match the valid values for
+the discriminator (although not necessarily in the same order). The
+above example for simple unions can be modified to a flat union as
+follows:

  { 'enum': 'BlockdevDriver', 'data': [ 'raw', 'qcow2' ] }
  { 'type': 'BlockdevCommonOptions',
@@ -173,13 +321,15 @@ Resulting in this JSON object:
    "lazy-refcounts": true }


-A special type of unions are anonymous unions. They don't form a dictionary in
-the wire format but allow the direct use of different types in their place. As
-they aren't structured, they don't have any explicit discriminator but use
-the (QObject) data type of their value as an implicit discriminator. This means
-that they are restricted to using only one discriminator value per QObject
-type. For example, you cannot have two different complex types in an anonymous
-union, or two different integer types.
+The final flavor of unions is an anonymous union. While the other two
+union types are always passed as a dictionary in the wire format, an
+anonymous union instead allows the direct use of different types in
+its place. As they aren't structured, they don't have any explicit
+discriminator but use the (QObject) data type of their value as an
+implicit discriminator. This means that they are restricted to using
+only one discriminator value per QObject type. For example, you cannot
+have two different complex types in an anonymous union, or two
+different integer types.

 Anonymous unions are declared using an empty dictionary as their discriminator.
 The discriminator values never appear on the wire, they are only used in the
@@ -200,23 +350,93 @@ This example allows using both of the following example 
objects:

 === Commands ===

-Commands are defined by using a list containing three members.  The first
-member is the command name, the second member is a dictionary containing
-arguments, and the third member is the return type.
+Usage: { 'command': 'str', '*data': 'dict-or-complex-type-name',
+         '*returns': 'type',
+         '*gen': false, '*success-response': false }

-An example command is:
+Commands are defined by using a dictionary containing several members,
+where three members are most common.  The 'command' member is a
+mandatory string, and determines the "execute" value passed in a QMP
+command exchange.
+
+The 'data' member is optional; if absent, the command accepts an
+optional empty dictionary.  If present, it must be the string name of
+a complex type, a one-element array containing the name of a complex
+type, or a dictionary that declares an anonymous type with the same
+semantics as a 'type' expression, with one exception noted below when
+'gen' is used.  The 'data' argument maps to the "arguments" dictionary
+passed in as part of a QMP command.
+
+The 'returns' member describes what will appear in the "return" field
+of a QMP reply on successful completion of a command.  The member is
+optional from the command declaration; if absent, the "return" field
+will be an empty dictionary.  If 'returns' is present, it must be the
+string name of a complex or built-in type, a one-element array
+containing the name of a complex or built-in type, or a dictionary
+that declares an anonymous type with the same semantics as a 'type'
+expression, with one exception noted below when 'gen' is used.
+Although it is permitted to have the 'returns' member name a built-in
+type or an array of built-in types, any command that does this cannot
+be extended to return additional information in the future; thus, new
+commands should strongly consider returning a dictionary-based type or
+an array of dictionaries, even if the dictionary only contains one
+field at the present.
+
+All commands use a dictionary to report failure, with no way to
+specify that in QAPI.  Where the error return is different than the
+usual GenericError class in order to help the client react differently
+to certain error conditions, it is worth documenting this in the
+comments before the command declaration.
+
+Some example commands:
+
+ { 'command': 'my-first-command',
+   'data': { 'arg1': 'str', '*arg2': 'str' } }
+ { 'type': 'MyType', 'data': { '*value': 'str' } }
+ { 'command': 'my-second-command',
+   'returns': [ 'MyType' ] }
+
+which would validate this QMP transaction:
+
+ => { "execute": "my-first-command",
+      "arguments": { "arg1": "hello" } }
+ <= { "return": { } }
+ => { "execute": "my-second-command" }
+ <= { "return": [ { "value": "one" }, { } ] }
+
+In rare cases, QAPI cannot express a type-safe representation of a
+corresponding QMP command.  In these cases, if the command expression
+includes the key 'gen' with boolean value false, then the 'data' or
+'returns' member that intends to bypass generated type-safety and do
+its own manual validation should use '**' rather than a valid type
+name.  Please try to avoid adding new commands that rely on this, and
+instead use type-safe unions.  For an example of bypass usage:
+
+ { 'command': 'netdev_add',
+   'data': {'type': 'str', 'id': 'str', '*props': '**'},
+   'gen': false }
+
+Normally, the QAPI schema is used to describe synchronous exchanges,
+where a response is expected.  But in some cases, the action of a
+command is expected to change state in a way that a successful
+response is not possible (the command still returns a normal
+dictionary error on failure).  When a successful reply is not
+possible, the command expression should include the optional key
+'success-response' with boolean value false.  So far, only the
+qemu-guest-agent makes use of this field.

- { 'command': 'my-command',
-   'data': { 'arg1': 'str', '*arg2': 'str' },
-   'returns': 'str' }

 === Events ===

-Events are defined with the keyword 'event'.  When 'data' is also specified,
-additional info will be included in the event.  Finally there will be C API
-generated in qapi-event.h; when called by QEMU code, a message with timestamp
-will be emitted on the wire.  If timestamp is -1, it means failure to retrieve
-host time.
+Usage: { 'event': 'str', '*data': 'dict-or-complex-type-name' }
+
+Events are defined with the keyword 'event'.  It is not allowed to
+name an event 'MAX', since the generator also produces a C enumeration
+of all event names with a generated _MAX value at the end.  When
+'data' is also specified, additional info will be included in the
+event, with similar semantics to a 'type' expression.  Finally there
+will be C API generated in qapi-event.h; when called by QEMU code, a
+message with timestamp will be emitted on the wire.

 An example event is:

@@ -311,7 +531,7 @@ Example:
     #ifndef EXAMPLE_QAPI_TYPES_H
     #define EXAMPLE_QAPI_TYPES_H

-[Builtin types omitted...]
+[Built-in types omitted...]

     typedef struct UserDefOne UserDefOne;

@@ -324,7 +544,7 @@ Example:
         struct UserDefOneList *next;
     } UserDefOneList;

-[Functions on builtin types omitted...]
+[Functions on built-in types omitted...]

     struct UserDefOne
     {
@@ -423,7 +643,7 @@ Example:
     #ifndef EXAMPLE_QAPI_VISIT_H
     #define EXAMPLE_QAPI_VISIT_H

-[Visitors for builtin types omitted...]
+[Visitors for built-in types omitted...]

     void visit_type_UserDefOne(Visitor *m, UserDefOne **obj, const char *name, 
Error **errp);
     void visit_type_UserDefOneList(Visitor *m, UserDefOneList **obj, const 
char *name, Error **errp);
diff --git a/docs/qmp/qmp-spec.txt b/docs/qmp/qmp-spec.txt
index 22568c6..1fb642b 100644
--- a/docs/qmp/qmp-spec.txt
+++ b/docs/qmp/qmp-spec.txt
@@ -1,10 +1,20 @@
                       QEMU Machine Protocol Specification

+0. About This Document
+======================
+
+This document is licensed under the GPLv2 (or later).
+
+Last revised in March 2015.
+
 1. Introduction
 ===============

-This document specifies the QEMU Machine Protocol (QMP), a JSON-based protocol
-which is available for applications to operate QEMU at the machine-level.
+This document specifies the QEMU Machine Protocol (QMP), a JSON-based
+protocol which is available for applications to operate QEMU at the
+machine-level.  It is also in use by the QEMU Guest Agent (QGA), which
+is available for host applications to interact with the guest
+operating system.

 2. Protocol Specification
 =========================
@@ -23,9 +33,11 @@ the JSON standard:

 http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc4627.txt

-For convenience, json-object members and json-array elements mentioned in
-this document will be in a certain order. However, in real protocol usage
-they can be in ANY order, thus no particular order should be assumed.
+For convenience, json-object members mentioned in this document will
+be in a certain order. However, in real protocol usage they can be in
+ANY order, thus no particular order should be assumed. On the other
+hand, use of json-array elements presumes that preserving order is
+important unless specifically documented otherwise.

 2.1 General Definitions
 -----------------------
@@ -52,7 +64,19 @@ The greeting message format is:
 - The "version" member contains the Server's version information (the format
   is the same of the query-version command)
 - The "capabilities" member specify the availability of features beyond the
-  baseline specification
+  baseline specification; the order of elements in this array has no
+  particular significance, so a client must search the entire array
+  when looking for a particular capability
+
+When first connecting to the server, the connection is in a capability
+exchange mode, further documented below.
+
+2.2.1 Capabilities
+------------------
+
+As of the date this document was last revised, no server or client
+capability strings have been defined.
+

 2.3 Issuing Commands
 --------------------
@@ -81,13 +105,15 @@ of a command execution: success or error.

 The format of a success response is:

-{ "return": json-object, "id": json-value }
+{ "return": json-entity, "id": json-value }

  Where,

-- The "return" member contains the command returned data, which is defined
-  in a per-command basis or an empty json-object if the command does not
-  return data
+- The "return" member contains the data returned by the command, which
+  is defined on a per-command basis (usually a json-object or
+  json-array of json-objects, but sometimes a json-value, json-string,
+  or json-array of json-strings); it is an empty json-object if the
+  command does not return data
 - The "id" member contains the transaction identification associated
   with the command execution if issued by the Client

@@ -114,7 +140,8 @@ if provided by the client.
 -----------------------

 As a result of state changes, the Server may send messages unilaterally
-to the Client at any time. They are called "asynchronous events".
+to the Client at any time, when not in the middle of any other
+response. They are called "asynchronous events".

 The format of asynchronous events is:

@@ -126,13 +153,27 @@ The format of asynchronous events is:
 - The "event" member contains the event's name
 - The "data" member contains event specific data, which is defined in a
   per-event basis, it is optional
-- The "timestamp" member contains the exact time of when the event occurred
-  in the Server. It is a fixed json-object with time in seconds and
-  microseconds
+- The "timestamp" member contains the exact time of when the event
+  occurred in the Server. It is a fixed json-object with time in
+  seconds and microseconds relative to the Unix Epoch (1 Jan 1970); if
+  there is a failure to retrieve host time, both members of the
+  timestamp will be set to -1.

 For a listing of supported asynchronous events, please, refer to the
 qmp-events.txt file.

+2.5 QGA Synchronization
+-----------------------
+
+When using QGA, an additional synchronization feature is built into
+the protocol.  If the Client sends a raw 0xFF sentinel byte (not valid
+JSON), then the Server will reset its state and discard all pending
+data prior to the sentinel.  Conversely, if the Client makes use of
+the 'guest-sync-delimited' command, the Server will send a raw 0xFF
+sentinel byte prior to its response, to aid the Client in discarding
+any data prior to the sentinel.
+
+
 3. QMP Examples
 ===============

@@ -145,32 +186,37 @@ This section provides some examples of real QMP usage, in 
all of them
 S: { "QMP": { "version": { "qemu": { "micro": 50, "minor": 6, "major": 1 },
      "package": ""}, "capabilities": []}}

-3.2 Simple 'stop' execution
+3.2 Client QMP negotiation
+--------------------------
+C: { "execute": "qmp_capabilities" }
+S: { "return": {}}
+
+3.3 Simple 'stop' execution
 ---------------------------

 C: { "execute": "stop" }
 S: { "return": {} }

-3.3 KVM information
+3.4 KVM information
 -------------------

 C: { "execute": "query-kvm", "id": "example" }
 S: { "return": { "enabled": true, "present": true }, "id": "example"}

-3.4 Parsing error
+3.5 Parsing error
 ------------------

 C: { "execute": }
 S: { "error": { "class": "GenericError", "desc": "Invalid JSON syntax" } }

-3.5 Powerdown event
+3.6 Powerdown event
 -------------------

 S: { "timestamp": { "seconds": 1258551470, "microseconds": 802384 },
     "event": "POWERDOWN" }

 4. Capabilities Negotiation
-----------------------------
+===========================

 When a Client successfully establishes a connection, the Server is in
 Capabilities Negotiation mode.
@@ -189,7 +235,7 @@ effect, all commands (except qmp_capabilities) are allowed 
and asynchronous
 messages are delivered.

 5 Compatibility Considerations
-------------------------------
+==============================

 All protocol changes or new features which modify the protocol format in an
 incompatible way are disabled by default and will be advertised by the
@@ -213,12 +259,16 @@ However, Clients must not assume any particular:
 - Amount of errors generated by a command, that is, new errors can be added
   to any existing command in newer versions of the Server

+Any command or field name beginning with "x-" is deemed experimental,
+and may be withdrawn or changed in an incompatible manner in a future
+release.
+
 Of course, the Server does guarantee to send valid JSON.  But apart from
 this, a Client should be "conservative in what they send, and liberal in
 what they accept".

 6. Downstream extension of QMP
-------------------------------
+==============================

 We recommend that downstream consumers of QEMU do *not* modify QMP.
 Management tools should be able to support both upstream and downstream
-- 
2.1.0