other: 0.276
device: 0.133
semantic: 0.128
graphic: 0.070
performance: 0.064
vnc: 0.051
debug: 0.047
PID: 0.045
network: 0.044
socket: 0.040
permissions: 0.039
boot: 0.026
KVM: 0.021
files: 0.017
semantic: 0.242
other: 0.126
network: 0.111
PID: 0.079
socket: 0.068
device: 0.067
files: 0.064
debug: 0.056
boot: 0.042
permissions: 0.040
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KVM: 0.026
graphic: 0.019

 [Feature request] qemu-ga - Allow unexpected parameter

It whould be nice if the qemu-ga allowed received messages to contain fields which is not part of the spec. In my example I have a host which sends the following request:

{"execute":"guest-exec","arguments":{"path":"prl_nettool","capture-output":true,"execute-in-shell":false,"arg":[...]}}

Right now this request is rejected with the following error:

{"error": {"class": "GenericError", "desc": "Parameter 'execute-in-shell' is unexpected"}}

My situation is the hosting provider I use does have some customized solution which sends some extra arguments. I have manually patched my qemu-ga so it accepts the "execute-in-shell" parameter but I don't think this should be necessary.

Instead of "Error" it should just be a "warning" returned to the user of qemu-ga but the call should still be executed.

This sounds an awful lot like your hosting provider expects you to be using a specialized version of qemu-ga which you are not using.

It is my opinion that it's dangerous for a client to accept partial commands and try to execute them anyway, as those ignored parameters drastically change the semantics of various commands.

We don't know what we don't know, so this doesn't sound safe.

I see you point. Just close this issue.

I agree with John, accepting commands that have not fully been understood is just too dangerous. So closing this as Won't-Fix.

BTW, if you have any friendly contact with the your hosting provider, please encourage them to contribute any enhancements they have back to QEMU. It is highly desirable to *NOT* have hosting providers needing a fork of qemu-ga, as that ruins ability to run standard disk images, as you've found.