Re: [Qemu-devel] Confused by QOM: /machine/unattached/device[5]/dr-connector[255]/fdt

[Markus Armbruster]

Andreas Färber <address@hidden> writes:

> Hi Markus,
>
> Am 09.09.2015 um 16:38 schrieb Markus Armbruster:
>> I ran into this:
>> 
>>     $ qemu-system-ppc64 -nodefaults -S -display none -monitor stdio
>> -machine pseries-2.4
>>     QEMU 2.4.50 monitor - type 'help' for more information
>>     (qemu) qom-list /machine/unattached/device[5]/dr-connector[255]
>>     fdt (struct)
>>     entity-sense (uint32)
>>     name (string)
>>     connector_type (uint32)
>>     index (uint32)
>>     id (uint32)
>>     allocation-state (uint32)
>>     indicator-state (uint32)
>>     isolation-state (uint32)
>>     parent_bus (link<bus>)
>>     hotplugged (bool)
>>     hotpluggable (bool)
>>     realized (bool)
>>     type (string)
>>     (qemu) qom-list /machine/unattached/device[5]/dr-connector[255]/fdt
>>     Device '/machine/unattached/device[5]/dr-connector[255]/fdt' not found
>> 
>> According to the first qom-list, .../fdt exists.  According to the
>> second, it doesn't.
>
> Actually this is fully expected: qom-list operates on QOM objects. The
> fdt property returns a struct, which is considered a value QOM-wise, so
> to read it you need to use qom-get, not qom-list.
>
> Now, it may well be that visiting a struct does not work as expected, I
> remember we ran into issues there, that held up the qom-tree stuff...

Okay, switching to QMP, because there's no qom-get in HMP (is that
intentional?).

    QMP> { "execute": "qom-list", "arguments": { "path": 
"/machine/unattached/device[5]/dr-connector[255]" } }
    {"return": [{"name": "fdt", "type": "struct"}, {"name": "entity-sense", 
"type": "uint32"}, {"name": "name", "type": "string"}, {"name": 
"connector_type", "type": "uint32"}, {"name": "index", "type": "uint32"}, 
{"name": "id", "type": "uint32"}, {"name": "allocation-state", "type": 
"uint32"}, {"name": "indicator-state", "type": "uint32"}, {"name": 
"isolation-state", "type": "uint32"}, {"name": "parent_bus", "type": 
"link<bus>"}, {"name": "hotplugged", "type": "bool"}, {"name": "hotpluggable", 
"type": "bool"}, {"name": "realized", "type": "bool"}, {"name": "type", "type": 
"string"}]}
    QMP> { "execute": "qom-list", "arguments": { "path": 
"/machine/unattached/device[5]/dr-connector[255]/fdt" } }
    {"error": {"class": "DeviceNotFound", "desc": "Device 
'/machine/unattached/device[5]/dr-connector[255]/fdt' not found"}}

Should qom-list really fail DeviceNotFound?  I find it rather confusing.
For what it's worth, attempting to read a directory fails with EISDIR,
not ENOENT.

Moving on to my next confusion: qom-get.

    QMP> { "execute": "qom-get", "arguments": { "path": 
"/machine/unattached/device[5]/dr-connector[255]", "property": "fdt" } }
    {"return": {}}

The return value {} is weird.  Let's see where it comes from.

qmp_qom_get() first calls object_resolve_path() on the path, then
object_property_get_qobject() on the property.  For our test case,
object_resolve_path() succeeds.  Now have a closer look at
object_property_get_qobject()'s behavior:

    QObject *object_property_get_qobject(Object *obj, const char *name,
                                         Error **errp)
    {
        QObject *ret = NULL;
        Error *local_err = NULL;
        QmpOutputVisitor *mo;

        mo = qmp_output_visitor_new();
        object_property_get(obj, qmp_output_get_visitor(mo), name, &local_err);

This call succeeds, and we enter the conditional.

        if (!local_err) {
            ret = qmp_output_get_qobject(mo);

This call returns NULL.

        }
        error_propagate(errp, local_err);

This sets *errp = NULL.

        qmp_output_visitor_cleanup(mo);
        return ret;
    }

Function returns NULL without setting an error.  Its function comment:

/*
 * object_property_get_qobject:
 * @obj: the object
 * @name: the name of the property
 * @errp: returns an error if this function fails
 *
 * Returns: the value of the property, converted to QObject, or NULL if
 * an error occurs.
 */

Is returning NULL without setting an error okay?

Should it return qnull() instead?  Then the QMP return value would be
JSON null.