device: 0.746 performance: 0.740 graphic: 0.730 user-level: 0.726 ppc: 0.646 semantic: 0.573 architecture: 0.554 network: 0.546 socket: 0.545 arm: 0.508 register: 0.506 permissions: 0.480 mistranslation: 0.479 vnc: 0.423 assembly: 0.406 kernel: 0.381 peripherals: 0.354 debug: 0.350 x86: 0.343 VMM: 0.333 i386: 0.310 hypervisor: 0.307 PID: 0.253 risc-v: 0.246 boot: 0.225 KVM: 0.225 virtual: 0.222 TCG: 0.202 files: 0.127 [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.