| Message ID | 20100218182458.07c3be6c@redhat.com |
|---|---|
| State | New |
| Headers | show |
On 02/18/2010 02:24 PM, Luiz Capitulino wrote: > Vendors might want to add their own extensions to QMP, as JSON itself > (and several other protocols) allow this someway, I think QMP should > allow too. > > We just have to choose a naming convention that is guaranteed not to > clash with any future new commands, arguments, parameters and event > names. > > Signed-off-by: Luiz Capitulino<lcapitulino@redhat.com> > --- > QMP/qmp-spec.txt | 23 +++++++++++++++++++++++ > 1 files changed, 23 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-) > > diff --git a/QMP/qmp-spec.txt b/QMP/qmp-spec.txt > index f3c0327..bc92c7e 100644 > --- a/QMP/qmp-spec.txt > +++ b/QMP/qmp-spec.txt > @@ -215,3 +215,26 @@ Additionally, Clients must not assume any particular: > - Order of json-object members or json-array elements > - Amount of errors generated by a command, that is, new errors can be added > to any existing command in newer versions of the Server > + > +6 Private Extensions > +-------------------- > + > +QMP provides a special naming convention to allow the creation of independent > +namespaces, which allows vendors to introduce private extensions to the > +protocol. It is guaranteed that no future QMP version will expose any name > +that follows this convention. > + > +Private extensions must be in the following format: > + > +v_NAMESPACE__NAME > + > + Where, > + > +- NAME is any argument, command, event or parameter name > +- NAMESPACE is the namespace that NAME belongs to > + > +For example, the following command: > + > +v_ABC__insert > + > +Is called 'insert' and is part of the 'ABC' namespace. > We need a bit more than just this. Here's my suggestion: 6. Downstream modification of QMP ----------------------------------------------------------- We strongly recommend that downstream consumers of QEMU do _not_ modify the behaviour of any QMP command or introduce new QMP commands. This is important to allow management tools to support both upstream and downstream versions of QMP without special logic. However, we recognize that it is sometimes impossible for downstreams to avoid modifying QMP. If this happens, the following rules should be observed to attempt to preserve long term compatibility and interoperability. 1) Only introduce new commands. If you want to change an existing command, leave the old command in place and introduce a new one with the new behaviour. 2) Only introduce new asynchronous messages. Do not change an existing message. 3) Only introduce new error types and only use those error types in new commands. New commands can use existing error types, but you should never add a new error type to an existing command. 4) Do not introduce any new capabilities. Capabilities directly affect a client's ability to parse the protocol correctly and new capabilities can not be supported in an upstream compatible way. Please work capabilities through upstream first. 5) QMP names will never begin with '__' (double underscore). When introducing new commands, asynchronous events, or error messages, a downstream must prefix those names with a '__' to ensure future compatibility with upstream. 6) To ensure compatibility with other downstreams, it is strongly recommended that you prefix the commands with '__RFQDN_' where RFQDN is a valid, reverse fully qualified domain name which you control. For example, a qemu-kvm specific monitor command would be: (qemu) __org.linux-kvm_enable_irqchip 7) Do not change the QMP banner. QMP supports introspection which will allow a management tool to differentiate between a downstream QMP session and an upstream QMP session. Regards, Anthony Liguori
On Thu, 18 Feb 2010 15:54:04 -0600 Anthony Liguori <anthony@codemonkey.ws> wrote: > On 02/18/2010 02:24 PM, Luiz Capitulino wrote: > > Vendors might want to add their own extensions to QMP, as JSON itself > > (and several other protocols) allow this someway, I think QMP should > > allow too. > > > > We just have to choose a naming convention that is guaranteed not to > > clash with any future new commands, arguments, parameters and event > > names. > > > > Signed-off-by: Luiz Capitulino<lcapitulino@redhat.com> > > --- > > QMP/qmp-spec.txt | 23 +++++++++++++++++++++++ > > 1 files changed, 23 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-) > > > > diff --git a/QMP/qmp-spec.txt b/QMP/qmp-spec.txt > > index f3c0327..bc92c7e 100644 > > --- a/QMP/qmp-spec.txt > > +++ b/QMP/qmp-spec.txt > > @@ -215,3 +215,26 @@ Additionally, Clients must not assume any particular: > > - Order of json-object members or json-array elements > > - Amount of errors generated by a command, that is, new errors can be added > > to any existing command in newer versions of the Server > > + > > +6 Private Extensions > > +-------------------- > > + > > +QMP provides a special naming convention to allow the creation of independent > > +namespaces, which allows vendors to introduce private extensions to the > > +protocol. It is guaranteed that no future QMP version will expose any name > > +that follows this convention. > > + > > +Private extensions must be in the following format: > > + > > +v_NAMESPACE__NAME > > + > > + Where, > > + > > +- NAME is any argument, command, event or parameter name > > +- NAMESPACE is the namespace that NAME belongs to > > + > > +For example, the following command: > > + > > +v_ABC__insert > > + > > +Is called 'insert' and is part of the 'ABC' namespace. > > > > We need a bit more than just this. Here's my suggestion: I like it very much, feel free to apply.
Anthony Liguori <anthony@codemonkey.ws> writes: > We need a bit more than just this. Here's my suggestion: I think this is much more restrictive than necessary. Unnecessarily restrictive rules are more likely to be ignored, and we don't want that. Details below. > 6. Downstream modification of QMP > ----------------------------------------------------------- > > We strongly recommend that downstream consumers of QEMU do _not_ > modify the behaviour of any QMP command or introduce new QMP commands. > This is important to allow management tools to support both upstream and > downstream versions of QMP without special logic. > > However, we recognize that it is sometimes impossible for downstreams to > avoid modifying QMP. If this happens, the following rules should be > observed Bad line break. > to attempt to preserve long term compatibility and interoperability. Better move your items 5-6) here, and make them talk about "names", not just commands. Items 1-4) make much more sense with the name space issue settled. > 1) Only introduce new commands. If you want to change an existing command, > leave the old command in place and introduce a new one with the new > behaviour. Extending an existing command in a compatible way should be fine. An extension is "compatible" if 1. it adds only optional arguments, and 2. it behaves differently only when new optional arguments are supplied. > 2) Only introduce new asynchronous messages. Do not change an > existing message. Why outlaw adding new data members? What would that break? > 3) Only introduce new error types and only use those error types in > new commands. > New commands can use existing error types, but you should never add a > new error type > to an existing command. A client that can't cope with unknown error types will only ever work on a single upstream version. Such clients will go the way of the Dodo real quick. With that established: why is adding new error types bad? > 4) Do not introduce any new capabilities. Capabilities directly > affect a client's ability to > parse the protocol correctly and new capabilities can not be supported > in an upstream > compatible way. Please work capabilities through upstream first. This is factually incorrect. Clients that don't recognize new capabilities just ignore them, and continue to work as before. The *point* of having capabilities is to permit protocol evolution without breaking clients. Why reserve evolution privileges to upstream? Yes, downstream should probably think twice before mucking with the basic protocol. But we should not attempt to stop downstreams from doing stupid things, as that would also stop them from doing clever things. > 5) QMP names will never begin with '__' (double underscore). When > introducing new > commands, asynchronous events, or error messages, a downstream must > prefix those > names with a '__' to ensure future compatibility with upstream. > > 6) To ensure compatibility with other downstreams, it is strongly > recommended that > you prefix the commands with '__RFQDN_' where RFQDN is a valid, > reverse fully > qualified domain name which you control. For example, a qemu-kvm > specific monitor > command would be: > > (qemu) __org.linux-kvm_enable_irqchip > > 7) Do not change the QMP banner. QMP supports introspection which > will allow a > management tool to differentiate between a downstream QMP session and an > upstream QMP session.
On 02/19/2010 07:04 AM, Markus Armbruster wrote: > Anthony Liguori<anthony@codemonkey.ws> writes: > > >> We need a bit more than just this. Here's my suggestion: >> > I think this is much more restrictive than necessary. Unnecessarily > restrictive rules are more likely to be ignored, and we don't want that. > Details below. > I disagree. The point of QMP is to allow third party tools to manage qemu in a robust way. Compatibility is a key part of this. Downstream QMP extension is a bad thing. It means management tools have to have a lot of special logic to deal with different downstreams. I believe we need to strongly discourage downstreams from making protocol changes while leaving them enough wiggle room to make the changes when they have no other choice. >> 6. Downstream modification of QMP >> ----------------------------------------------------------- >> >> We strongly recommend that downstream consumers of QEMU do _not_ >> modify the behaviour of any QMP command or introduce new QMP commands. >> This is important to allow management tools to support both upstream and >> downstream versions of QMP without special logic. >> >> However, we recognize that it is sometimes impossible for downstreams to >> avoid modifying QMP. If this happens, the following rules should be >> observed >> > Bad line break. > > >> to attempt to preserve long term compatibility and interoperability. >> > Better move your items 5-6) here, and make them talk about "names", not > just commands. Items 1-4) make much more sense with the name space > issue settled. > Good suggestion. >> 1) Only introduce new commands. If you want to change an existing command, >> leave the old command in place and introduce a new one with the new >> behaviour. >> > Extending an existing command in a compatible way should be fine. An > extension is "compatible" if > > 1. it adds only optional arguments, and > > 2. it behaves differently only when new optional arguments are supplied. > From an implementation perspective, it's very easy to modify an existing command, call it a new name, then add a new command with the old name that passes only the compatible parameters. So I have a hard time believing this is really a burden for downstreams. Think about it from an end-to-end perspective. If I'm writing a client library, and I expose a function qmp_commit(session, disk, force=false), and the QMP protocol introduces a vendor extension to qmp_commit(), I now need to change the qmp_commit() interface in my library to support that new parameter. Except since this is a vendor parameter, now every caller has to have knowledge about dealing with different vendors. On the other handle, a qmp_rhel_commit() command happily lives in a separate namespace. In fact, in a well written client library, it could easily be a plugin. The normal library consumer never has to think about vendor functions unless they explicitly need a function that only lives in a vendor namespace. >> 2) Only introduce new asynchronous messages. Do not change an >> existing message. >> > Why outlaw adding new data members? What would that break? > It's the same argument as above. If you add new data members, you expose vendor extensions to the core protocol which has to propagate all the way down to the end user. >> 3) Only introduce new error types and only use those error types in >> new commands. >> New commands can use existing error types, but you should never add a >> new error type >> to an existing command. >> > A client that can't cope with unknown error types will only ever work on > a single upstream version. Such clients will go the way of the Dodo > real quick. > > With that established: why is adding new error types bad? > Same as above. The core API should not behave any differently in a downstream. Clients who only use the core API should not have to adapt their behaviour for downstreams. With respect to ignoring error types, I disagree. There's certainly going to be a class (perhaps the majority) of clients that treat errors roughly the same. However, there is going to be a class of clients that very clearly handle errors in special ways depending on the error type. >> 4) Do not introduce any new capabilities. Capabilities directly >> affect a client's ability to >> parse the protocol correctly and new capabilities can not be supported >> in an upstream >> compatible way. Please work capabilities through upstream first. >> > This is factually incorrect. Clients that don't recognize new > capabilities just ignore them, and continue to work as before. > I think you misinterpreted my statement. Capabilities absolute affect the client's ability to parse the protocol if you enable them. If you support downstream specific capabilities, then knowledge of downstream needs to be very deep within any client library. That's an unnecessary level of complexity IMHO. Capabilities will be rare. I doubt a downstream would ever reasonably need to add a capability that isn't upstream. N.B. backporting upstream capabilities/commands/error messages is not what we're talking about here. All of those things are perfectly fine without using a vendor namespace. We're specifically talking about adding new features that are not present upstream. I think it's completely reasonable to suggest that capabilities should be done upstream first. Regards, Anthony Liguori
Anthony Liguori <anthony@codemonkey.ws> writes: > On 02/19/2010 07:04 AM, Markus Armbruster wrote: >> Anthony Liguori<anthony@codemonkey.ws> writes: >> >> >>> We need a bit more than just this. Here's my suggestion: >>> >> I think this is much more restrictive than necessary. Unnecessarily >> restrictive rules are more likely to be ignored, and we don't want that. >> Details below. >> > > I disagree. The point of QMP is to allow third party tools to manage > qemu in a robust way. Compatibility is a key part of this. > > Downstream QMP extension is a bad thing. It means management tools > have to have a lot of special logic to deal with different > downstreams. I believe we need to strongly discourage downstreams > from making protocol changes while leaving them enough wiggle room to > make the changes when they have no other choice. Wearing my upstream hat: Yes, downstream extensions are undesirable. Yes, it makes sense to discourage them. And yes, downstreams will be occasionally compelled to add extensions anyway. The only truly normative bit in the whole text is our promise to reserve the "__" prefix for vendors. The rest is merely advice. We have no power whatsoever to make downstream take it. Upstream has to lead by argument and example. Putting advice forward in the form of arbitrary "rules" is a good way to ensure it's ignored. Advice needs a rationale. The stronger the recommendation, the more convincing its rationale needs to be. We already established rules for protocol evolution: we won't change existing commands, arguments, and so forth; we won't add new mandatory arguments; we may add optional arguments, new errors, ... If these rules are good enough for us, why aren't they good enough for downstream? I don't think we can expect downstream to follow rules we don't intend to follow ourselves. What follows is merely elaborating on these maxims. >>> 6. Downstream modification of QMP >>> ----------------------------------------------------------- >>> >>> We strongly recommend that downstream consumers of QEMU do _not_ >>> modify the behaviour of any QMP command or introduce new QMP commands. >>> This is important to allow management tools to support both upstream and >>> downstream versions of QMP without special logic. >>> >>> However, we recognize that it is sometimes impossible for downstreams to >>> avoid modifying QMP. If this happens, the following rules should be >>> observed >>> >> Bad line break. >> >> >>> to attempt to preserve long term compatibility and interoperability. >>> >> Better move your items 5-6) here, and make them talk about "names", not >> just commands. Items 1-4) make much more sense with the name space >> issue settled. >> > > Good suggestion. > >>> 1) Only introduce new commands. If you want to change an existing command, >>> leave the old command in place and introduce a new one with the new >>> behaviour. >>> >> Extending an existing command in a compatible way should be fine. An >> extension is "compatible" if >> >> 1. it adds only optional arguments, and >> >> 2. it behaves differently only when new optional arguments are supplied. >> > > From an implementation perspective, it's very easy to modify an > existing command, call it a new name, then add a new command with the > old name that passes only the compatible parameters. So I have a hard > time believing this is really a burden for downstreams. > > Think about it from an end-to-end perspective. If I'm writing a > client library, and I expose a function qmp_commit(session, disk, > force=false), and the QMP protocol introduces a vendor extension to > qmp_commit(), I now need to change the qmp_commit() interface in my > library to support that new parameter. Except since this is a vendor > parameter, now every caller has to have knowledge about dealing with > different vendors. > > On the other handle, a qmp_rhel_commit() command happily lives in a > separate namespace. In fact, in a well written client library, it > could easily be a plugin. The normal library consumer never has to > think about vendor functions unless they explicitly need a function > that only lives in a vendor namespace. With a bit more precision: consider monitor command "commit", available in QMP (not yet true, but that doesn't matter). Say we have a client library that provides function qmp_commit(), which is merely a straightforward marshalling wrapper around the QMP command. Observations: 1. The client library and its users continues to work unchanged even when the server (QEMU) adds vendor-specific optional arguments. 2. The client library may elect to expose vendor-specific arguments in qmp_commit() to its users. 3. The client library may elect to provide a vendor-specific wrapper qmp_<vendor>_commit() around QMP command commit that exposes vendor-specific arguments. In fact, that could easily be a plugin. 4. Regardless of whether the client library does 2., 3. or neither, its unmodified users continue to work unchanged. I don't think we have convincing rationale for a "rule" here. >>> 2) Only introduce new asynchronous messages. Do not change an >>> existing message. >>> >> Why outlaw adding new data members? What would that break? >> > > It's the same argument as above. If you add new data members, you > expose vendor extensions to the core protocol which has to propagate > all the way down to the end user. I don't think so. As everywhere else, new members are "opt-in". Any robust QMP client already has to ignore members it doesn't know, to have a chance to work with multiple upstream versions. In fact, I can't see any qualitative difference between dealing with multiple upstream versions and dealing with vendor-specific extensions in different downstream versions. Back to events. Say I want to provide some additional information with an existing event. Admittedly contrived example: add a simple error code to BLOCK_IO_ERROR, to further explain the nature of the error. Two options: 1. add it to the existing event, and 2. create a new event and send it in addition to the old one (I find that clumsy). Non-option, because it breaks clients that know only BLOCK_IO_ERROR: create a new event and send it instead of BLOCK_IO_ERROR Say I'm working upstream. I'd surely do 1. Say I'm working downstream. Your "rule" quite arbitrarily demands I do 2. instead. I say "arbitrarily", because I find the rationale for it unconvincing. >>> 3) Only introduce new error types and only use those error types in >>> new commands. >>> New commands can use existing error types, but you should never add a >>> new error type >>> to an existing command. >>> >> A client that can't cope with unknown error types will only ever work on >> a single upstream version. Such clients will go the way of the Dodo >> real quick. >> >> With that established: why is adding new error types bad? >> > > Same as above. The core API should not behave any differently in a > downstream. Clients who only use the core API should not have to > adapt their behaviour for downstreams. We explicitly require clients to cope with new errors (qmp-spec.txt section 5 Compatibility Considerations). Why reserve the privilege to use that flexibility to upstream? > With respect to ignoring error types, I disagree. There's certainly > going to be a class (perhaps the majority) of clients that treat > errors roughly the same. However, there is going to be a class of > clients that very clearly handle errors in special ways depending on > the error type. And even they will need a fallback for unknown errors, to avoid tight coupling to a specific upstream version. >>> 4) Do not introduce any new capabilities. Capabilities directly >>> affect a client's ability to >>> parse the protocol correctly and new capabilities can not be supported >>> in an upstream >>> compatible way. Please work capabilities through upstream first. >>> >> This is factually incorrect. Clients that don't recognize new >> capabilities just ignore them, and continue to work as before. >> > > I think you misinterpreted my statement. Capabilities absolute affect > the client's ability to parse the protocol if you enable them. If you > support downstream specific capabilities, then knowledge of downstream > needs to be very deep within any client library. That's an > unnecessary level of complexity IMHO. Capabilities are "opt-in". Supporting downstream-specific new capabilities is no different to supporting new capabilities added by upstream. Why privilege upstream? > Capabilities will be rare. I doubt a downstream would ever reasonably > need to add a capability that isn't upstream. I quite agree that new capabilities are the least desirable of all downstream extensions. > N.B. backporting upstream capabilities/commands/error messages is not > what we're talking about here. All of those things are perfectly fine > without using a vendor namespace. We're specifically talking about > adding new features that are not present upstream. I think it's > completely reasonable to suggest that capabilities should be done > upstream first. "Upstream first" is sensible policy, and as with all sensible policies, it's practical policy in most cases (provided you make an honest effort), but not in all cases.
Anthony asked me to take a stab at rewriting his draft to something more
along the lines of what I'm thinking. Here goes. I put some remarks
[in brackets].
FYI, I'll be out of town until Wednesday.
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
versions of QMP without special logic, and downstream extensions are
inherently at odds with that.
However, we recognize that it is sometimes impossible for downstreams to
avoid modifying QMP. Both upstream and downstream need to take care to
preserve long-term compatibility and interoperability.
To help with that, QMP reserves JSON object member names beginning with
'__' (double underscore) for downstream use ("downstream names"). This
means upstream will never use any downstream names for its commands,
arguments, errors, asynchronous events, and so forth.
Any new names downstream wishes to add must begin with '__'. To ensure
compatibility with other downstreams, it is strongly recommended that
you prefix the commands with '__RFQDN_' where RFQDN is a valid, reverse
fully qualified domain name which you control. For example, a qemu-kvm
specific monitor command would be:
(qemu) __org.linux-kvm_enable_irqchip
Downstream must not change the server greeting (section 2.2) other than
to offer additional capabilities. But see below for why even that is
discouraged.
Section '5 Compatibility Considerations' applies to downstream as well
as to upstream, obviously. [That section needs work!] It follows that
downstream must behave exactly like upstream for any input not
containing members with downstream names ("downstream members"), except
it may add members with downstream names to its output.
Thus, a client should not be able to distinguish downstream from
upstream as long as it doesn't send input with downstream members, and
properly ignores any downstream members in the output it receives.
[I fully support everything up to this point. I have some reservations
on the rest, and I doubt it'll be all that useful, but I don't really
mind having it, at least not in this form.]
Advice on downstream modifications:
[I made a honest effort at capturing Anthony's intentions here,
my apologies if I screwed it up.]
1. Introducing new commands is okay. If you want to extend an existing
command, consider introducing a new one with the new behaviour
instead. [FIXME Could use a rationale: why is extending bad? Make
sure to cover errors, because that's needed for 3.]
2. Introducing new asynchronous messages is okay. If you want to extend
an existing message, consider adding a new one instead. [FIXME Could
use a rationale: why is extending bad?]
3. Introducing new errors for use in new commands is okay. Adding new
errors to existing commands counts as extension, so 1. applies.
4. New capabilities are strongly discouraged. Capabilities are for
evolving the basic protocol, and multiple diverging basic protocol
dialects are most undesirable.
On Fri, 05 Mar 2010 20:00:25 +0100 Markus Armbruster <armbru@redhat.com> wrote: > Anthony asked me to take a stab at rewriting his draft to something more > along the lines of what I'm thinking. Here goes. I put some remarks > [in brackets]. I don't have strong opinions on the differences, so this look ok to me. Anthony?
Anthony, no reply from you; did it fall through the cracks? If you're fine with my draft, I'll turn it into a proper patch. Markus Armbruster <armbru@redhat.com> writes: > Anthony asked me to take a stab at rewriting his draft to something more > along the lines of what I'm thinking. Here goes. I put some remarks > [in brackets]. > > FYI, I'll be out of town until Wednesday. > > > 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 > versions of QMP without special logic, and downstream extensions are > inherently at odds with that. > > However, we recognize that it is sometimes impossible for downstreams to > avoid modifying QMP. Both upstream and downstream need to take care to > preserve long-term compatibility and interoperability. > > To help with that, QMP reserves JSON object member names beginning with > '__' (double underscore) for downstream use ("downstream names"). This > means upstream will never use any downstream names for its commands, > arguments, errors, asynchronous events, and so forth. > > Any new names downstream wishes to add must begin with '__'. To ensure > compatibility with other downstreams, it is strongly recommended that > you prefix the commands with '__RFQDN_' where RFQDN is a valid, reverse > fully qualified domain name which you control. For example, a qemu-kvm > specific monitor command would be: > > (qemu) __org.linux-kvm_enable_irqchip > > Downstream must not change the server greeting (section 2.2) other than > to offer additional capabilities. But see below for why even that is > discouraged. > > Section '5 Compatibility Considerations' applies to downstream as well > as to upstream, obviously. [That section needs work!] It follows that > downstream must behave exactly like upstream for any input not > containing members with downstream names ("downstream members"), except > it may add members with downstream names to its output. > > Thus, a client should not be able to distinguish downstream from > upstream as long as it doesn't send input with downstream members, and > properly ignores any downstream members in the output it receives. > > [I fully support everything up to this point. I have some reservations > on the rest, and I doubt it'll be all that useful, but I don't really > mind having it, at least not in this form.] > > Advice on downstream modifications: > [I made a honest effort at capturing Anthony's intentions here, > my apologies if I screwed it up.] > > 1. Introducing new commands is okay. If you want to extend an existing > command, consider introducing a new one with the new behaviour > instead. [FIXME Could use a rationale: why is extending bad? Make > sure to cover errors, because that's needed for 3.] > > 2. Introducing new asynchronous messages is okay. If you want to extend > an existing message, consider adding a new one instead. [FIXME Could > use a rationale: why is extending bad?] > > 3. Introducing new errors for use in new commands is okay. Adding new > errors to existing commands counts as extension, so 1. applies. > > 4. New capabilities are strongly discouraged. Capabilities are for > evolving the basic protocol, and multiple diverging basic protocol > dialects are most undesirable.
On 05/06/2010 10:52 AM, Markus Armbruster wrote: > Anthony, no reply from you; did it fall through the cracks? If you're > fine with my draft, I'll turn it into a proper patch. > Yes, sorry, I thought I had already responded as such. Regards, Anthony Liguori > Markus Armbruster<armbru@redhat.com> writes: > > >> Anthony asked me to take a stab at rewriting his draft to something more >> along the lines of what I'm thinking. Here goes. I put some remarks >> [in brackets]. >> >> FYI, I'll be out of town until Wednesday. >> >> >> 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 >> versions of QMP without special logic, and downstream extensions are >> inherently at odds with that. >> >> However, we recognize that it is sometimes impossible for downstreams to >> avoid modifying QMP. Both upstream and downstream need to take care to >> preserve long-term compatibility and interoperability. >> >> To help with that, QMP reserves JSON object member names beginning with >> '__' (double underscore) for downstream use ("downstream names"). This >> means upstream will never use any downstream names for its commands, >> arguments, errors, asynchronous events, and so forth. >> >> Any new names downstream wishes to add must begin with '__'. To ensure >> compatibility with other downstreams, it is strongly recommended that >> you prefix the commands with '__RFQDN_' where RFQDN is a valid, reverse >> fully qualified domain name which you control. For example, a qemu-kvm >> specific monitor command would be: >> >> (qemu) __org.linux-kvm_enable_irqchip >> >> Downstream must not change the server greeting (section 2.2) other than >> to offer additional capabilities. But see below for why even that is >> discouraged. >> >> Section '5 Compatibility Considerations' applies to downstream as well >> as to upstream, obviously. [That section needs work!] It follows that >> downstream must behave exactly like upstream for any input not >> containing members with downstream names ("downstream members"), except >> it may add members with downstream names to its output. >> >> Thus, a client should not be able to distinguish downstream from >> upstream as long as it doesn't send input with downstream members, and >> properly ignores any downstream members in the output it receives. >> >> [I fully support everything up to this point. I have some reservations >> on the rest, and I doubt it'll be all that useful, but I don't really >> mind having it, at least not in this form.] >> >> Advice on downstream modifications: >> [I made a honest effort at capturing Anthony's intentions here, >> my apologies if I screwed it up.] >> >> 1. Introducing new commands is okay. If you want to extend an existing >> command, consider introducing a new one with the new behaviour >> instead. [FIXME Could use a rationale: why is extending bad? Make >> sure to cover errors, because that's needed for 3.] >> >> 2. Introducing new asynchronous messages is okay. If you want to extend >> an existing message, consider adding a new one instead. [FIXME Could >> use a rationale: why is extending bad?] >> >> 3. Introducing new errors for use in new commands is okay. Adding new >> errors to existing commands counts as extension, so 1. applies. >> >> 4. New capabilities are strongly discouraged. Capabilities are for >> evolving the basic protocol, and multiple diverging basic protocol >> dialects are most undesirable. >>
diff --git a/QMP/qmp-spec.txt b/QMP/qmp-spec.txt index f3c0327..bc92c7e 100644 --- a/QMP/qmp-spec.txt +++ b/QMP/qmp-spec.txt @@ -215,3 +215,26 @@ Additionally, Clients must not assume any particular: - Order of json-object members or json-array elements - Amount of errors generated by a command, that is, new errors can be added to any existing command in newer versions of the Server + +6 Private Extensions +-------------------- + +QMP provides a special naming convention to allow the creation of independent +namespaces, which allows vendors to introduce private extensions to the +protocol. It is guaranteed that no future QMP version will expose any name +that follows this convention. + +Private extensions must be in the following format: + +v_NAMESPACE__NAME + + Where, + +- NAME is any argument, command, event or parameter name +- NAMESPACE is the namespace that NAME belongs to + +For example, the following command: + +v_ABC__insert + +Is called 'insert' and is part of the 'ABC' namespace.
Vendors might want to add their own extensions to QMP, as JSON itself (and several other protocols) allow this someway, I think QMP should allow too. We just have to choose a naming convention that is guaranteed not to clash with any future new commands, arguments, parameters and event names. Signed-off-by: Luiz Capitulino <lcapitulino@redhat.com> --- QMP/qmp-spec.txt | 23 +++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 files changed, 23 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)