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Diffstat (limited to 'docs/devel/writing-monitor-commands.rst')
| -rw-r--r-- | docs/devel/writing-monitor-commands.rst | 101 |
1 files changed, 100 insertions, 1 deletions
diff --git a/docs/devel/writing-monitor-commands.rst b/docs/devel/writing-monitor-commands.rst index 031e980bf5..b87992df91 100644 --- a/docs/devel/writing-monitor-commands.rst +++ b/docs/devel/writing-monitor-commands.rst @@ -374,7 +374,9 @@ best practices. An example where this approach is taken is the QMP command "x-query-registers". This returns a formatted dump of the architecture specific CPU state. The way the data is formatted varies across QEMU targets, is liable to change over time, and is only -intended to be consumed as an opaque string by machines. +intended to be consumed as an opaque string by machines. Refer to the +`Writing a debugging aid returning unstructured text`_ section for +an illustration. User Defined Types ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ @@ -642,3 +644,100 @@ has to traverse the list, it's shown below for reference:: qapi_free_TimerAlarmMethodList(method_list); } + +Writing a debugging aid returning unstructured text +--------------------------------------------------- + +As discussed in section `Modelling data in QAPI`_, it is required that +commands expecting machine usage be using fine-grained QAPI data types. +The exception to this rule applies when the command is solely intended +as a debugging aid and allows for returning unstructured text. This is +commonly needed for query commands that report aspects of QEMU's +internal state that are useful to human operators. + +In this example we will consider a simplified variant of the HMP +command ``info roms``. Following the earlier rules, this command will +need to live under the ``x-`` name prefix, so its QMP implementation +will be called ``x-query-roms``. It will have no parameters and will +return a single text string:: + + { 'struct': 'HumanReadableText', + 'data': { 'human-readable-text': 'str' } } + + { 'command': 'x-query-roms', + 'returns': 'HumanReadableText' } + +The ``HumanReadableText`` struct is intended to be used for all +commands, under the ``x-`` name prefix that are returning unstructured +text targetted at humans. It should never be used for commands outside +the ``x-`` name prefix, as those should be using structured QAPI types. + +Implementing the QMP command +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +The QMP implementation will typically involve creating a ``GString`` +object and printing formatted data into it:: + + HumanReadableText *qmp_x_query_roms(Error **errp) + { + g_autoptr(GString) buf = g_string_new(""); + Rom *rom; + + QTAILQ_FOREACH(rom, &roms, next) { + g_string_append_printf("%s size=0x%06zx name=\"%s\"\n", + memory_region_name(rom->mr), + rom->romsize, + rom->name); + } + + return human_readable_text_from_str(buf); + } + + +Implementing the HMP command +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Now that the QMP command is in place, we can also make it available in +the human monitor (HMP) as shown in previous examples. The HMP +implementations will all look fairly similar, as all they need do is +invoke the QMP command and then print the resulting text or error +message. Here's the implementation of the "info roms" HMP command:: + + void hmp_info_roms(Monitor *mon, const QDict *qdict) + { + Error err = NULL; + g_autoptr(HumanReadableText) info = qmp_x_query_roms(&err); + + if (hmp_handle_error(mon, err)) { + return; + } + monitor_printf(mon, "%s", info->human_readable_text); + } + +Also, you have to add the function's prototype to the hmp.h file. + +There's one last step to actually make the command available to +monitor users, we should add it to the hmp-commands-info.hx file:: + + { + .name = "roms", + .args_type = "", + .params = "", + .help = "show roms", + .cmd = hmp_info_roms, + }, + +The case of writing a HMP info handler that calls a no-parameter QMP query +command is quite common. To simplify the implementation there is a general +purpose HMP info handler for this scenario. All that is required to expose +a no-parameter QMP query command via HMP is to declare it using the +'.cmd_info_hrt' field to point to the QMP handler, and leave the '.cmd' +field NULL:: + + { + .name = "roms", + .args_type = "", + .params = "", + .help = "show roms", + .cmd_info_hrt = qmp_x_query_roms, + }, |