diff --git a/tests/qemuxml2xmltest.c b/tests/qemuxml2xmltest.c
index b1989cbb5f..ccf9cfcef0 100644
--- a/tests/qemuxml2xmltest.c
+++ b/tests/qemuxml2xmltest.c
@@ -75,10 +75,22 @@ testXML2XMLInactive(const void *opaque)
 }
 
 
+/**
+ * testInfoSetPaths:
+ * @info: test info structure to populate
+ * @suffix: suffix used to create output file name e.g. ".x86-64_latest"
+ * @statesuffix: suffix to create output file name based on tested state ("active" | "inactive")
+ *
+ * This function populates @info with the correct input and output file paths.
+ *
+ * The output file is chosen based on whether a version with @statesuffix exists.
+ * If yes, it's used, if no the @statesuffix is omitted and it's expected that
+ * both the "active" and "inactive" versions are the same.
+ */
 static void
 testInfoSetPaths(struct testQemuInfo *info,
                  const char *suffix,
-                 int when)
+                 const char *statesuffix)
 {
     VIR_FREE(info->infile);
     VIR_FREE(info->outfile);
@@ -88,7 +100,7 @@ testInfoSetPaths(struct testQemuInfo *info,
 
     info->outfile = g_strdup_printf("%s/qemuxml2xmloutdata/%s-%s%s.xml",
                                     abs_srcdir, info->name,
-                                    when == WHEN_ACTIVE ? "active" : "inactive", suffix);
+                                    statesuffix, suffix);
 
     if (!virFileExists(info->outfile)) {
         VIR_FREE(info->outfile);
@@ -146,12 +158,12 @@ mymain(void)
         testQemuInfoSetArgs(&info, &testConf, __VA_ARGS__); \
  \
         if (when & WHEN_INACTIVE) { \
-            testInfoSetPaths(&info, suffix, WHEN_INACTIVE); \
+            testInfoSetPaths(&info, suffix, "inactive"); \
             virTestRunLog(&ret, "QEMU XML-2-XML-inactive " _name, testXML2XMLInactive, &info); \
         } \
  \
         if (when & WHEN_ACTIVE) { \
-            testInfoSetPaths(&info, suffix, WHEN_ACTIVE); \
+            testInfoSetPaths(&info, suffix, "active"); \
             virTestRunLog(&ret, "QEMU XML-2-XML-active " _name, testXML2XMLActive, &info); \
         } \
         testQemuInfoClear(&info); \