qemu-options: document new monitor-hmp and monitor-qmp objects
Add new docs for the `-object monitor-hmp` and `-object monitor-qmp` options, updating `-mon` to state that it is legacy syntax sugar for the new `-object` args. Signed-off-by: Daniel P. Berrangé <berrange@redhat.com> Message-ID: <20260706135824.2623960-35-berrange@redhat.com> Reviewed-by: Markus Armbruster <armbru@redhat.com> Signed-off-by: Markus Armbruster <armbru@redhat.com>
Daniel P. Berrangé committed
Jul 6, 2026 at 14:58 UTC
864b145c5839cce45f74217c70a8df5da5f5d14d
1 file changed
+58
-3
qemu-options.hx
+58
-3
@@ -4955,6 +4955,11 @@ SRST
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port). The default device is ``vc`` in graphical mode and ``stdio``
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in non graphical mode. Use ``-monitor none`` to disable the default
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monitor.
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+
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+ The use of ``-monitor dev`` is syntactic sugar for creating a character
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+ device from ``dev`` and pairing it with ``-object monitor-hmp``.
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+ Both the character device and monitor object will be given an ID
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+ ``compat_monitorNNN`` where ``NNN`` is a counter starting from 0.
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ERST
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DEF("qmp", HAS_ARG, QEMU_OPTION_qmp, \
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"-qmp dev like -monitor but opens in 'control' mode\n",
@@ -4966,9 +4971,10 @@ SRST
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-qmp tcp:localhost:4444,server=on,wait=off
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- Not all options are configurable via this syntax; for maximum
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- flexibility use the ``-mon`` option and an accompanying ``-chardev``.
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-
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+ The use of ``-qmp dev`` is syntactic sugar for creating a character
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+ device from ``dev`` and pairing it with ``-object monitor-qmp``.
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+ Both the character device and monitor object will be given an ID
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+ ``compat_monitorNNN`` where ``NNN`` is a counter starting from 0.
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ERST
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DEF("qmp-pretty", HAS_ARG, QEMU_OPTION_qmp_pretty, \
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"-qmp-pretty dev like -qmp but uses pretty JSON formatting\n",
@@ -4997,6 +5003,16 @@ SRST
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-mon chardev=mon1,mode=control,pretty=on
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enables the QMP monitor on localhost port 4444 with pretty-printing.
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+
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+ The use of ``-mon mode=readline`` is syntactic sugar
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+ for the new ``-object monitor-hmp`` option, each use of which
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+ creates an object with the ID ``compat_monitorNNN`` where ``NNN`` is
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+ a counter starting from 0.
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+
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+ The use of ``-mon mode=control`` is syntactic sugar
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+ for the new ``-object monitor-qmp`` option, each use of which
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+ creates an object with the ID ``compat_monitorNNN`` where ``NNN`` is
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+ a counter starting from 0.
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ERST
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DEF("debugcon", HAS_ARG, QEMU_OPTION_debugcon, \
@@ -5747,6 +5763,45 @@ SRST
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they are specified. Note that the 'id' property must be set. These
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objects are placed in the '/objects' path.
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+ ``-object monitor-hmp,id=id,chardev=chardev_id,readline=on|off``
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+ Set up a monitor running the Human Monitor Protocol,
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+ connected to the chardev ``chardev_id``.
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+
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+ The ``id`` parameter is a unique ID that can be used
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+ to dynamically delete the monitor at runtime. Note
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+ that monitors created using the historical syntax
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+ will be allocated IDs following the pattern ``compat_monmitorNNN``.
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+ Mixing ``-object`` with ``-monitor`` and ``-mon`` syntax is
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+ discouraged.
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+
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+ The ``readline`` parameter, which defaults to ``on``,
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+ controls whether the monitor provides line editing.
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+
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+ ``-object monitor-qmp,id=id,chardev=chardev_id,pretty=on|off,close-action=none|delete``
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+ Set up a monitor running the QEMU Monitor Protocol,
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+ connected to the chardev ``chardev_id``.
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+
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+ The ``id`` parameter is a unique ID that can be used
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+ to dynamically delete the monitor at runtime. Note
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+ that monitors created using the historical syntax
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+ will be allocated IDs following the pattern ``compat_monitorNNN``.
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+ Mixing ``-object`` with ``-qmp``, ``-qmp-pretty`` and
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+ ``-mon`` syntax is discouraged.
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+
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+ The ``pretty`` parameter, which defaults to ``off``,
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+ controls whether the monitor responses are pretty
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+ printed as multi-line indented JSON, as opposed to
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+ constrained to a single line without extraneous
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+ whitespace.
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+
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+ The ``close-action`` parameter, which defaults to ``none``,
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+ controls what happens when the connection to the monitor
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+ is terminated by the user. If set to ``delete``, then the
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+ ``monitor-qmp`` object and its associated character
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+ device are both immediately deleted. This can be useful
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+ if an extra monitor was hotplugged for a specific task
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+ and should be unplugged when completed.
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+
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``-object memory-backend-file,id=id,size=size,mem-path=dir,share=on|off,discard-data=on|off,merge=on|off,dump=on|off,prealloc=on|off,host-nodes=host-nodes,policy=default|preferred|bind|interleave,align=align,offset=offset,readonly=on|off,rom=on|off|auto``
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Creates a memory file backend object, which can be used to back
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the guest RAM with huge pages.