[PULL 15/37] docs/devel/qapi-code-gen: Rewrite compatibility considerations

[Markus Armbruster]

We have some compatibility advice buried in sections "Enumeration
types" and "Struct types".  Compatibility is actually about commands
and events.  It devolves to the types used there.  All kinds of types,
not just enumerations and structs.

Replace the existing advice by a new section "Compatibility
considerations".

Signed-off-by: Markus Armbruster <address@hidden>
Reviewed-by: Eric Blake <address@hidden>
Message-Id: <address@hidden>
[Squash in paragraph on invisible schema changes, as per Eric's review]
---
 docs/devel/qapi-code-gen.txt | 99 +++++++++++++++++++++++-------------
 1 file changed, 64 insertions(+), 35 deletions(-)

diff --git a/docs/devel/qapi-code-gen.txt b/docs/devel/qapi-code-gen.txt
index 663ef10a56..ac36ed34e3 100644
--- a/docs/devel/qapi-code-gen.txt
+++ b/docs/devel/qapi-code-gen.txt
@@ -178,14 +178,11 @@ 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 clients of Client
-JSON Protocol; however, removing enum values would break
-compatibility.  For any struct that has a member that will only contain
-a finite set of string values, using an enum type for that member is
-better than open-coding the member to be type 'str'.
+converting between strings and enum values.
 
+For any struct that has a member that will only contain a finite set
+of string values, using an enum type for that member is better than
+open-coding the member to be type 'str'.
 
 === Struct types ===
 
@@ -203,34 +200,6 @@ name.  An example of a struct is:
 The use of '*' as a prefix to the name means the member is optional in
 the corresponding JSON protocol usage.
 
-The default initialization value of an optional argument should not be changed
-between versions of QEMU unless the new default maintains backward
-compatibility to the user-visible behavior of the old default.
-
-With proper documentation, this policy still allows some flexibility; for
-example, documenting that a default of 0 picks an optimal buffer size allows
-one release to declare the optimal size at 512 while another release declares
-the optimal size at 4096 - the user-visible behavior is not the bytes used by
-the buffer, but the fact that the buffer was optimal size.
-
-On input structures (only mentioned in the 'data' side of a command), changing
-from mandatory to optional is safe (older clients will supply the option, and
-newer clients can benefit from the default); changing from optional to
-mandatory is backwards incompatible (older clients may be omitting the option,
-and must continue to work).
-
-On output structures (only mentioned in the 'returns' side of a command),
-changing from mandatory to optional is in general unsafe (older clients may be
-expecting the member, and could crash if it is missing), although it
-can be done if the only way that the optional argument will be omitted
-is when it is triggered by the presence of a new input flag to the
-command that older clients don't know to send.  Changing from optional
-to mandatory is safe.
-
-A structure that is used in both input and output of various commands
-must consider the backwards compatibility constraints of both directions
-of use.
-
 A struct definition can specify another struct as its base.
 In this case, the members of the base type are included as top-level members
 of the new struct's dictionary in the Client JSON Protocol wire
@@ -1037,6 +1006,66 @@ the names of built-in types.  Clients should examine 
member
 "json-type" instead of hard-coding names of built-in types.
 
 
+== Compatibility considerations ==
+
+Maintaining backward compatibility at the Client JSON Protocol level
+while evolving the schema requires some care.  This section is about
+syntactic compatibility, which is necessary, but not sufficient, for
+actual compatibility.
+
+Clients send commands with argument data, and receive command
+responses with return data and events with event data.
+
+Adding opt-in functionality to the send direction is backwards
+compatible: adding commands, optional arguments, enumeration values,
+union and alternate branches; turning an argument type into an
+alternate of that type; making mandatory arguments optional.  Clients
+oblivious of the new functionality continue to work.
+
+Incompatible changes include removing commands, command arguments,
+enumeration values, union and alternate branches, adding mandatory
+command arguments, and making optional arguments mandatory.
+
+The specified behavior of an absent optional argument should remain
+the same.  With proper documentation, this policy still allows some
+flexibility; for example, when an optional 'buffer-size' argument is
+specified to default to a sensible buffer size, the actual default
+value can still be changed.  The specified default behavior is not the
+exact size of the buffer, only that the default size is sensible.
+
+Adding functionality to the receive direction is generally backwards
+compatible: adding events, adding return and event data members.
+Clients are expected to ignore the ones they don't know.
+
+Removing "unreachable" stuff like events that can't be triggered
+anymore, optional return or event data members that can't be sent
+anymore, and return or event data member (enumeration) values that
+can't be sent anymore makes no difference to clients, except for
+introspection.  The latter can conceivably confuse clients, so tread
+carefully.
+
+Incompatible changes include removing return and event data members.
+
+Any change to a command definition's 'data' or one of the types used
+there (recursively) needs to consider send direction compatibility.
+
+Any change to a command definition's 'return', an event definition's
+'data', or one of the types used there (recursively) needs to consider
+receive direction compatibility.
+
+Any change to types used in both contexts need to consider both.
+
+Members of enumeration types, complex types and alternate types may be
+reordered freely.  For enumerations and alternate types, this doesn't
+affect the wire encoding.  For complex types, this might make the
+implementation emit JSON object members in a different order, which
+the Client JSON Protocol permits.
+
+Since type names are not visible in the Client JSON Protocol, types
+may be freely renamed.  Even certain refactorings are invisible, such
+as splitting members from one type into a common base type.
+
+
 == Code generation ==
 
 The QAPI code generator qapi-gen.py generates code and documentation
-- 
2.21.0