This addresses two key gotchas with the logging APIs:

 * Safely outputting a single line of text using
   multiple qemu_log() calls requires use of the
   qemu_log_trylock/unlock functions to avoid
   interleaving between threads

 * Directly outputting to the FILE object returned
   by qemu_log_trylock() must be discouraged because
   it prevents the inclusion of configured log message
   prefixes.

Reported-by: Markus Armbruster <arm...@redhat.com>
Signed-off-by: Daniel P. Berrangé <berra...@redhat.com>
---
 include/qemu/log-for-trace.h | 35 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-
 include/qemu/log.h           | 26 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 rust/util/src/log.rs         |  7 +++++++
 3 files changed, 67 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/include/qemu/log-for-trace.h b/include/qemu/log-for-trace.h
index d47c9cd446..4e05b2e26f 100644
--- a/include/qemu/log-for-trace.h
+++ b/include/qemu/log-for-trace.h
@@ -29,7 +29,40 @@ static inline bool qemu_loglevel_mask(int mask)
     return (qemu_loglevel & mask) != 0;
 }
 
-/* main logging function */
+/**
+ * qemu_log: report a log message
+ * @fmt: the format string for the message
+ * @...: the format string arguments
+ *
+ * This will emit a log message to the current output stream.
+ *
+ * The @fmt string should normally represent a complete line
+ * of text, ending with a newline character.
+ *
+ * If intending to call this function multiple times to
+ * incrementally construct a line of text, locking must
+ * be used to ensure that output from different threads
+ * is not interleaved.
+ *
+ * This is achieved by calling qemu_log_trylock() before
+ * starting the log line; calling qemu_log() multiple
+ * times with the last call having a newline at the end
+ * of @fmt; finishing with a call to qemu_log_unlock().
+ *
+ * The FILE object returned by qemu_log_trylock() does
+ * not need to be used for outputting text directly,
+ * it is merely used to associate the lock.
+ *
+ *    FILE *f = qemu_log_trylock()
+ *
+ *    qemu_log("Something");
+ *    qemu_log("Something");
+ *    qemu_log("Something");
+ *    qemu_log("The end\n");
+ *
+ *    qemu_log_unlock(f);
+ *
+ */
 void G_GNUC_PRINTF(1, 2) qemu_log(const char *fmt, ...);
 
 #endif
diff --git a/include/qemu/log.h b/include/qemu/log.h
index aae72985f0..867fe327e4 100644
--- a/include/qemu/log.h
+++ b/include/qemu/log.h
@@ -41,7 +41,33 @@ bool qemu_log_separate(void);
 
 /* Lock/unlock output. */
 
+/**
+ * Acquires a lock on the current log output stream.
+ * The returned FILE object must be passed to
+ * qemu_log_unlock() to later release the lock.
+ *
+ * This should be used to protect a sequence of calls
+ * to qemu_log(), if they are being used to incrementally
+ * output a single line of text. For qemu_log() calls which
+ * output a complete line of text it is not required to
+ * take explicit locks.
+ *
+ * The returned FILE object may be used to directly
+ * output log messages, however, doing so will prevent
+ * the inclusion of configured log message prefixes.
+ * It is thus recommended that this be used sparingly,
+ * only in cases where it is required to dump large
+ * data volumes. Use of qemu_log() is preferred for
+ * most output tasks.
+ *
+ * Returns: the current FILE if available, NULL on error
+ */
 FILE *qemu_log_trylock(void) G_GNUC_WARN_UNUSED_RESULT;
+
+/**
+ * Releases the lock on the log output, previously
+ * acquired by qemu_log_trylock().
+ */
 void qemu_log_unlock(FILE *fd);
 
 /* Logging functions: */
diff --git a/rust/util/src/log.rs b/rust/util/src/log.rs
index af9a3e9123..eaf493f0df 100644
--- a/rust/util/src/log.rs
+++ b/rust/util/src/log.rs
@@ -55,6 +55,13 @@ impl LogGuard {
     ///     writeln!(log, "test");
     /// }
     /// ```
+    ///
+    /// Note that directly writing to the log output will prevent the
+    /// inclusion of configured log prefixes. It is thus recommended
+    /// that this be used sparingly, only in cases where it is required
+    /// to dump large data volumes. Use of 
[`log_mask_ln!()`](crate::log_mask_ln)
+    /// macro() is preferred for most output tasks.
+
     pub fn new() -> Option<Self> {
         let f = unsafe { bindings::qemu_log_trylock() }.cast();
         NonNull::new(f).map(Self)
-- 
2.50.1

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