qapi: Document type-safety considerations

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 <eblake@redhat.com>
Reviewed-by: Markus Armbruster <armbru@redhat.com>
Signed-off-by: Markus Armbruster <armbru@redhat.com>

docs/qapi-code-gen.txt

@@ -9,61 +9,179 @@ later. See the COPYING file in the top-level directory.
 == Introduction ==
 
 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
+users/processes, this interface is made available by a JSON-based wire
-QEMU Monitor protocol that is provided by the QMP server.
+format for the QEMU Monitor Protocol (QMP) for controlling qemu, as
+well as the QEMU Guest Agent (QGA) for communicating with the guest.
 
-To map QMP-defined interfaces to the native C QAPI implementations,
+To map QMP and QGA interfaces to the native C QAPI implementations, a
-a JSON-based schema is used to define types and function
+JSON-based schema is used to define types and function signatures, and
-signatures, and a set of scripts is used to generate types/signatures,
+a set of scripts is used to generate types, signatures, and
-and marshaling/dispatch code. The QEMU Guest Agent also uses these
+marshaling/dispatch code. This document will describe how the schemas,
-scripts, paired with a separate schema, to generate
+scripts, and resulting code are used.
-marshaling/dispatch code for the guest agent server running in the
-guest.
-
-This document will describe how the schemas, scripts, and resulting
-code are used.
 
 
 == QMP/Guest agent schema ==
 
-This file defines the types, commands, and events used by QMP.  It should
+A QAPI schema file is designed to be loosely based on JSON
-fully describe the interface used by QMP.
+(http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc7159.txt) with changes for quoting style
+and the use of comments; a QAPI schema file is then parsed by a python
+code generation program.  A valid QAPI schema consists of a series of
+top-level expressions, with no commas between them.  Where
+dictionaries (JSON objects) are used, they are parsed as python
+OrderedDicts so that ordering is preserved (for predictable layout of
+generated C structs and parameter lists).  Ordering doesn't matter
+between top-level expressions or the keys within an expression, but
+does matter within dictionary values for 'data' and 'returns' members
+of a single expression.  QAPI schema input is written using 'single
+quotes' instead of JSON's "double quotes" (in contrast, QMP uses no
+comments, and while input accepts 'single quotes' as an extension,
+output is strict JSON using only "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).  At present, there is no place where a QAPI schema
+requires the use of JSON numbers or null.
 
-This file is designed to be loosely based on JSON although it's technically
+Comments are allowed; anything between an unquoted # and the following
-executable Python.  While dictionaries are used, they are parsed as
+newline is ignored.  Although there is not yet a documentation
-OrderedDicts so that ordering is preserved.
+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:
 
-There are two basic syntaxes used, type definitions and command definitions.
+    ##
+    # @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'} }
 
-The first syntax defines a type and is represented by a dictionary.  There are
+The schema sets up a series of types, as well as commands and events
-three kinds of user-defined types that are supported: complex types,
+that will use those types.  Forward references are allowed: the parser
-enumeration types and union types.
+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.
 
-Generally speaking, types definitions should always use CamelCase for the type
+There are six top-level expressions recognized by the parser:
-names. Command names should be all lower case with words separated by a hyphen.
+'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' and 'event' expressions
+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 name (command, event, type, field, or enum value) 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 name uses dash (example:
+__com.redhat_drive-mirror).  Other than downstream extensions (with
+leading underscore and the use of dots), all names should begin with a
+letter, and contain only ASCII letters, digits, 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.
+
+In the rest of this document, usage lines are given for each
+expression type, with literal strings written in lower case and
+placeholders written in capitals.  If a literal string includes a
+prefix of '*', that key/value pair can be omitted from the expression.
+For example, a usage statement that includes '*base':COMPLEX-TYPE-NAME
+means that an expression has an optional key 'base', which if present
+must have a value that forms a complex type name.
+
+
+=== 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': STRING }
+
 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
+Usage: { 'type': STRING, 'data': DICT, '*base': COMPLEX-TYPE-NAME }
-dictionary.  This corresponds to a struct in C or an Object in JSON.  An
+
-example of a complex type is:
+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
+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
@@ -108,22 +226,52 @@ 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
+Usage: { 'enum': STRING, 'data': ARRAY-OF-STRING }
-list of strings.  An example enumeration is:
+
+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
+Usage: { 'union': STRING, 'data': DICT }
-types.  A union type is defined using a dictionary as explained in the
+or:    { 'union': STRING, 'data': DICT, 'base': COMPLEX-TYPE-NAME,
+         'discriminator': ENUM-MEMBER-OF-BASE }
+or:    { 'union': STRING, 'data': DICT, 'discriminator': {} }
+
+Union types are used to let the user choose between several different
+variants for an object.  There are three flavors: simple (no
+discriminator or base), flat (both base and discriminator are
+strings), 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 automatic discriminator
-A simple union type defines a mapping from discriminator values to data types
+values to data types like in this example:
-like in this example:
 
  { 'type': 'FileOptions', 'data': { 'filename': 'str' } }
  { 'type': 'Qcow2Options',
@@ -133,36 +281,34 @@ like in this example:
    'data': { 'file': 'FileOptions',
              'qcow2': 'Qcow2Options' } }
 
-In the QMP wire format, a simple union is represented by a dictionary that
+In the QMP wire format, a simple union is represented by a dictionary
-contains the 'type' field as a discriminator, and a 'data' field that is of the
+that contains the 'type' field as a discriminator, and a 'data' field
-specified data type corresponding to the discriminator value:
+that is of the specified data type corresponding to the discriminator
+value, as in these examples:
 
+ { "type": "file", "data" : { "filename": "/some/place/my-image" } }
  { "type": "qcow2", "data" : { "backing-file": "/some/place/my-image",
                                "lazy-refcounts": true } }
 
-
+The generated C code uses a struct containing a union. Additionally,
-A union definition can specify a complex type as its base. In this case, the
+an implicit C enum 'NameKind' is created, corresponding to the union
-fields of the complex type are included as top-level fields of the union
+'Name', for accessing the various branches of the union.  No branch of
-dictionary in the QMP wire format. An example definition is:
+the union can be named 'max', as this would collide with the implicit
-
+enum.  The value for each branch can be of any type.
- { 'type': 'BlockdevCommonOptions', 'data': { 'readonly': 'bool' } }
- { 'union': 'BlockdevOptions',
-   'base': 'BlockdevCommonOptions',
-   'data': { 'raw': 'RawOptions',
-             'qcow2': 'Qcow2Options' } }
-
-And it looks like this on the wire:
-
- { "type": "qcow2",
-   "readonly": false,
-   "data" : { "backing-file": "/some/place/my-image",
-              "lazy-refcounts": true } }
 
 
-Flat union types avoid the nesting on the wire. They are used whenever a
+A flat union definition specifies a complex type as its base, and
-specific field of the base type is declared as the discriminator ('type' is
+avoids nesting on the wire.  All branches of the union must be
-then no longer generated). The discriminator must be of enumeration type.
+complex types, and the top-level fields of the union dictionary on
-The above example can then be modified as follows:
+the wire will be combination of fields from both the base type and the
+appropriate branch type (when merging two dictionaries, there must be
+no keys in common).  The 'discriminator' field must be the name of an
+enum-typed member of the base type.
+
+The following example enhances the above simple union example by
+adding a common field 'readonly', renaming the discriminator to
+something more applicable, and reducing the number of {} required on
+the wire:
 
  { 'enum': 'BlockdevDriver', 'data': [ 'raw', 'qcow2' ] }
  { 'type': 'BlockdevCommonOptions',
@@ -170,28 +316,47 @@ The above example can then be modified as follows:
  { 'union': 'BlockdevOptions',
    'base': 'BlockdevCommonOptions',
    'discriminator': 'driver',
-   'data': { 'raw': 'RawOptions',
+   'data': { 'file': 'FileOptions',
              'qcow2': 'Qcow2Options' } }
 
-Resulting in this JSON object:
+Resulting in these JSON objects:
 
- { "driver": "qcow2",
+ { "driver": "file", "readonly": true,
-   "readonly": false,
+   "filename": "/some/place/my-image" }
-   "backing-file": "/some/place/my-image",
+ { "driver": "qcow2", "readonly": false,
-   "lazy-refcounts": true }
+   "backing-file": "/some/place/my-image", "lazy-refcounts": true }
+
+Notice that in a flat union, the discriminator name is controlled by
+the user, but because it must map to a base member with enum type, the
+code generator can ensure that branches exist for all values of the
+enum (although the order of the keys need not match the declaration of
+the enum).  In the resulting generated C data types, a flat union is
+represented as a struct with the base member fields included directly,
+and then a union of structures for each branch of the struct.
+
+A simple union can always be re-written as a flat union where the base
+class has a single member named 'type', and where each branch of the
+union has a complex type with a single member named 'data'.  That is,
+
+ { 'union': 'Simple', 'data': { 'one': 'str', 'two': 'int' } }
+
+is identical on the wire to:
+
+ { 'enum': 'Enum', 'data': ['one', 'two'] }
+ { 'type': 'Base', 'data': { 'type': 'Enum' } }
+ { 'type': 'Branch1', 'data': { 'data': 'str' } }
+ { 'type': 'Branch2', 'data': { 'data': 'int' } }
+ { 'union': 'Flat': 'base': 'Base', 'discriminator': 'type',
+   'data': { 'one': 'Branch1', 'two': 'Branch2' } }
 
 
-A special type of unions are anonymous unions. They don't form a dictionary in
+The final flavor of unions is an anonymous union. While the other two
-the wire format but allow the direct use of different types in their place. As
+union types are always passed as a JSON object in the wire format, an
-they aren't structured, they don't have any explicit discriminator but use
+anonymous union instead allows the direct use of different types in
-the (QObject) data type of their value as an implicit discriminator. This means
+its place. Anonymous unions are declared using an empty dictionary as
-that they are restricted to using only one discriminator value per QObject
+their discriminator. The discriminator values never appear on the
-type. For example, you cannot have two different complex types in an anonymous
+wire, they are only used in the generated C code. Anonymous unions
-union, or two different integer types.
+cannot have a base type.
-
-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
-generated C code. Anonymous unions cannot have a base type.
 
  { 'union': 'BlockRef',
    'discriminator': {},
@@ -208,23 +373,95 @@ This example allows using both of the following example objects:
 
 === Commands ===
 
-Commands are defined by using a list containing three members.  The first
+Usage: { 'command': STRING, '*data': COMPLEX-TYPE-NAME-OR-DICT,
-member is the command name, the second member is a dictionary containing
+         '*returns': TYPE-NAME-OR-DICT,
-arguments, and the third member is the return 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' argument maps to the "arguments" dictionary passed in as
+part of a QMP command.  The 'data' member is optional and defaults to
+{} (an 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 '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 an inline dictionary definition,
+with a value of '**' rather than a valid type name for the keys that
+the generated code will not validate.  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 (although the command will still return 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 QGA 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,
+Usage: { 'event': STRING, '*data': COMPLEX-TYPE-NAME-OR-DICT }
-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
+Events are defined with the keyword 'event'.  It is not allowed to
-will be emitted on the wire.  If timestamp is -1, it means failure to retrieve
+name an event 'MAX', since the generator also produces a C enumeration
-host time.
+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:
 
@@ -319,7 +556,7 @@ Example:
     #ifndef EXAMPLE_QAPI_TYPES_H
     #define EXAMPLE_QAPI_TYPES_H
 
-[Builtin types omitted...]
+[Built-in types omitted...]
 
     typedef struct UserDefOne UserDefOne;
 
@@ -332,7 +569,7 @@ Example:
         struct UserDefOneList *next;
     } UserDefOneList;
 
-[Functions on builtin types omitted...]
+[Functions on built-in types omitted...]
 
     struct UserDefOne
     {
@@ -431,7 +668,7 @@ 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);

docs/qmp/qmp-spec.txt

@@ -11,8 +11,11 @@ later. See the COPYING file in the top-level directory.
 1. Introduction
 ===============
 
-This document specifies the QEMU Machine Protocol (QMP), a JSON-based protocol
+This document specifies the QEMU Machine Protocol (QMP), a JSON-based
-which is available for applications to operate QEMU at the machine-level.
+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
 =========================
@@ -26,14 +29,27 @@ following format:
 
     json-DATA-STRUCTURE-NAME
 
-Where DATA-STRUCTURE-NAME is any valid JSON data structure, as defined by
+Where DATA-STRUCTURE-NAME is any valid JSON data structure, as defined
-the JSON standard:
+by the JSON standard:
 
-http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc4627.txt
+http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc7159.txt
 
-For convenience, json-object members and json-array elements mentioned in
+The protocol is always encoded in UTF-8 except for synchronization
-this document will be in a certain order. However, in real protocol usage
+bytes (documented below); although thanks to json-string escape
-they can be in ANY order, thus no particular order should be assumed.
+sequences, the server will reply using only the strict ASCII subset.
+
+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.  Repeating a key
+within a json-object gives unpredictable results.
+
+Also for convenience, the server will accept an extension of
+'single-quoted' strings in place of the usual "double-quoted"
+json-string, and both input forms of strings understand an additional
+escape sequence of "\'" for a single quote. The server will only use
+double quoting on output.
 
 2.1 General Definitions
 -----------------------
@@ -60,7 +76,16 @@ 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
+
+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
 --------------------
@@ -73,10 +98,14 @@ The format for command execution is:
 
 - The "execute" member identifies the command to be executed by the Server
 - The "arguments" member is used to pass any arguments required for the
-  execution of the command, it is optional when no arguments are required
+  execution of the command, it is optional when no arguments are
+  required. Each command documents what contents will be considered
+  valid when handling the json-argument
 - The "id" member is a transaction identification associated with the
   command execution, it is optional and will be part of the response if
-  provided
+  provided. The "id" member can be any json-value, although most
+  clients merely use a json-number incremented for each successive
+  command
 
 2.4 Commands Responses
 ----------------------
@@ -89,13 +118,15 @@ of a command execution: success or error.
 
 The format of a success response is:
 
-{ "return": json-object, "id": json-value }
+{ "return": json-value, "id": json-value }
 
  Where,
 
-- The "return" member contains the command returned data, which is defined
+- The "return" member contains the data returned by the command, which
-  in a per-command basis or an empty json-object if the command does not
+  is defined on a per-command basis (usually a json-object or
-  return data
+  json-array of json-objects, but sometimes a json-number, 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
 
@@ -122,7 +153,8 @@ 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:
 
@@ -134,13 +166,27 @@ 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
+- The "timestamp" member contains the exact time of when the event
-  in the Server. It is a fixed json-object with time in seconds and
+  occurred in the Server. It is a fixed json-object with time in
-  microseconds
+  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
 ===============
 
@@ -153,32 +199,37 @@ 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.
@@ -197,7 +248,7 @@ 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
@@ -221,12 +272,16 @@ 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