Re: [RFC PATCH 2/8] hw/arm/smmuv3-accel: Introduce _AUTO support for ATS

[Markus Armbruster <armbru@redhat.com>]

Eric Auger <eric.auger@redhat.com> writes:

> On 3/12/26 9:39 AM, Markus Armbruster wrote:

[...]

>> We promise to follow a certain process when changing external
>> interfaces: docs/about/deprecated.rst.
>>
>> This is why I inquired about external access.  No external access, no
>> compatibility worries.
>>
>> I specifically asked about JSON, because going from bool to OnOffAuto is
>> mostly compatible in key=value syntax: values "on" and "off" keep
>> working.
>>
>> Mostly compatible, because qapi_bool_parse() also recognizes "yes",
>> "true", "y", "no", "false", and "n" for convenience, and these stop
>> working.  We have a knack for inventing convenience features that later
>> bite us.
>>
>> JSON breaks entirely, of course: all values stop working.
>>
>> Even with external access, compatibility worries start only after we
>> shipped the interface in a release.  Did we?
> those options were introduced in qemu 11.0. Fixing them in -rc is still
> an option but it is a very tight schedule

If it turns out to be too tight, rever them or declare them
experimental?  Then you can revise them without process hassle in the
next release.

[...]