diff --git a/src/conf/capabilities.c b/src/conf/capabilities.c
index 6c11a7f54a..b66c6ddbf5 100644
--- a/src/conf/capabilities.c
+++ b/src/conf/capabilities.c
@@ -867,7 +867,7 @@ virCapabilitiesFormatXML(virCapsPtr caps)
         virBufferAdjustIndent(&buf, -2);
         virBufferAddLit(&buf, "</features>\n");
     }
-    virCPUDefFormatBuf(&buf, caps->host.cpu, 0);
+    virCPUDefFormatBuf(&buf, caps->host.cpu, false);
 
     for (i = 0; i < caps->host.nPagesSize; i++) {
         virBufferAsprintf(&buf, "<pages unit='KiB' size='%u'/>\n",
diff --git a/src/conf/cpu_conf.c b/src/conf/cpu_conf.c
index 31fb458839..d6d579f9a0 100644
--- a/src/conf/cpu_conf.c
+++ b/src/conf/cpu_conf.c
@@ -532,11 +532,11 @@ virCPUDefParseXML(xmlNodePtr node,
 
 char *
 virCPUDefFormat(virCPUDefPtr def,
-                unsigned int flags)
+                bool updateCPU)
 {
     virBuffer buf = VIR_BUFFER_INITIALIZER;
 
-    if (virCPUDefFormatBufFull(&buf, def, flags) < 0)
+    if (virCPUDefFormatBufFull(&buf, def, updateCPU) < 0)
         goto cleanup;
 
     if (virBufferCheckError(&buf) < 0)
@@ -553,7 +553,7 @@ virCPUDefFormat(virCPUDefPtr def,
 int
 virCPUDefFormatBufFull(virBufferPtr buf,
                        virCPUDefPtr def,
-                       unsigned int flags)
+                       bool updateCPU)
 {
     if (!def)
         return 0;
@@ -573,7 +573,7 @@ virCPUDefFormatBufFull(virBufferPtr buf,
 
         if (def->model &&
             (def->mode == VIR_CPU_MODE_CUSTOM ||
-             (flags & VIR_DOMAIN_XML_UPDATE_CPU))) {
+             updateCPU)) {
             if (!(tmp = virCPUMatchTypeToString(def->match))) {
                 virReportError(VIR_ERR_INTERNAL_ERROR,
                                _("Unexpected CPU match policy %d"),
@@ -589,7 +589,7 @@ virCPUDefFormatBufFull(virBufferPtr buf,
     if (def->arch)
         virBufferAsprintf(buf, "<arch>%s</arch>\n",
                           virArchToString(def->arch));
-    if (virCPUDefFormatBuf(buf, def, flags) < 0)
+    if (virCPUDefFormatBuf(buf, def, updateCPU) < 0)
         return -1;
     virBufferAdjustIndent(buf, -2);
 
@@ -601,7 +601,7 @@ virCPUDefFormatBufFull(virBufferPtr buf,
 int
 virCPUDefFormatBuf(virBufferPtr buf,
                    virCPUDefPtr def,
-                   unsigned int flags)
+                   bool updateCPU)
 {
     size_t i;
     bool formatModel;
@@ -612,7 +612,7 @@ virCPUDefFormatBuf(virBufferPtr buf,
 
     formatModel = (def->mode == VIR_CPU_MODE_CUSTOM ||
                    def->mode == VIR_CPU_MODE_HOST_MODEL ||
-                   (flags & VIR_DOMAIN_XML_UPDATE_CPU));
+                   updateCPU);
     formatFallback = (def->type == VIR_CPU_TYPE_GUEST &&
                       (def->mode == VIR_CPU_MODE_HOST_MODEL ||
                        (def->mode == VIR_CPU_MODE_CUSTOM && def->model)));
diff --git a/src/conf/cpu_conf.h b/src/conf/cpu_conf.h
index 5bcf10178b..46fce25b5c 100644
--- a/src/conf/cpu_conf.h
+++ b/src/conf/cpu_conf.h
@@ -158,16 +158,16 @@ virCPUDefIsEqual(virCPUDefPtr src,
 
 char *
 virCPUDefFormat(virCPUDefPtr def,
-                unsigned int flags);
+                bool updateCPU);
 
 int
 virCPUDefFormatBuf(virBufferPtr buf,
                    virCPUDefPtr def,
-                   unsigned int flags);
+                   bool updateCPU);
 int
 virCPUDefFormatBufFull(virBufferPtr buf,
                        virCPUDefPtr def,
-                       unsigned int flags);
+                       bool updateCPU);
 
 int
 virCPUDefAddFeature(virCPUDefPtr cpu,
diff --git a/src/conf/domain_conf.c b/src/conf/domain_conf.c
index 3cbb93d677..fc29f976ee 100644
--- a/src/conf/domain_conf.c
+++ b/src/conf/domain_conf.c
@@ -19882,7 +19882,8 @@ virDomainDefFormatInternal(virDomainDefPtr def,
         virBufferAddLit(buf, "</features>\n");
     }
 
-    if (virCPUDefFormatBufFull(buf, def->cpu, flags) < 0)
+    if (virCPUDefFormatBufFull(buf, def->cpu,
+                               !!(flags & VIR_DOMAIN_XML_UPDATE_CPU)) < 0)
         goto error;
 
     virBufferAsprintf(buf, "<clock offset='%s'",
diff --git a/src/cpu/cpu.c b/src/cpu/cpu.c
index 788f68873d..6976b7bbc8 100644
--- a/src/cpu/cpu.c
+++ b/src/cpu/cpu.c
@@ -472,7 +472,7 @@ cpuBaselineXML(const char **xmlCPUs,
     if (!(cpu = cpuBaseline(cpus, ncpus, models, nmodels, flags)))
         goto error;
 
-    cpustr = virCPUDefFormat(cpu, 0);
+    cpustr = virCPUDefFormat(cpu, false);
 
  cleanup:
     if (cpus) {
diff --git a/tests/cputest.c b/tests/cputest.c
index a5075768fc..e49ae2471a 100644
--- a/tests/cputest.c
+++ b/tests/cputest.c
@@ -153,7 +153,7 @@ static int
 cpuTestCompareXML(const char *arch,
                   virCPUDef *cpu,
                   const char *name,
-                  unsigned int flags)
+                  bool updateCPU)
 {
     char *xml = NULL;
     char *expected = NULL;
@@ -167,7 +167,7 @@ cpuTestCompareXML(const char *arch,
     if (virtTestLoadFile(xml, &expected) < 0)
         goto cleanup;
 
-    if (!(actual = virCPUDefFormat(cpu, flags)))
+    if (!(actual = virCPUDefFormat(cpu, updateCPU)))
         goto cleanup;
 
     if (STRNEQ(expected, actual)) {
@@ -303,7 +303,7 @@ cpuTestGuestData(const void *arg)
     }
     result = virBufferContentAndReset(&buf);
 
-    ret = cpuTestCompareXML(data->arch, guest, result, 0);
+    ret = cpuTestCompareXML(data->arch, guest, result, false);
 
  cleanup:
     VIR_FREE(result);
@@ -351,7 +351,7 @@ cpuTestBaseline(const void *arg)
     if (virAsprintf(&result, "%s-%s", data->name, suffix) < 0)
         goto cleanup;
 
-    if (cpuTestCompareXML(data->arch, baseline, result, 0) < 0)
+    if (cpuTestCompareXML(data->arch, baseline, result, false) < 0)
         goto cleanup;
 
     for (i = 0; i < ncpus; i++) {
@@ -403,8 +403,7 @@ cpuTestUpdate(const void *arg)
     if (virAsprintf(&result, "%s+%s", data->host, data->name) < 0)
         goto cleanup;
 
-    ret = cpuTestCompareXML(data->arch, cpu, result,
-                            VIR_DOMAIN_XML_UPDATE_CPU);
+    ret = cpuTestCompareXML(data->arch, cpu, result, true);
 
  cleanup:
     virCPUDefFree(host);