diff --git a/docs/interop/qcow2.txt b/docs/interop/qcow2.txt
index af5711e533..823cc266e0 100644
--- a/docs/interop/qcow2.txt
+++ b/docs/interop/qcow2.txt
@@ -79,9 +79,9 @@ The first cluster of a qcow2 image contains the file header:
                     Offset into the image file at which the snapshot table
                     starts. Must be aligned to a cluster boundary.
 
-If the version is 3 or higher, the header has the following additional fields.
-For version 2, the values are assumed to be zero, unless specified otherwise
-in the description of a field.
+For version 2, the header is exactly 72 bytes in length, and finishes here.
+For version 3 or higher, the header length is at least 104 bytes, including
+the next fields through header_length.
 
          72 -  79:  incompatible_features
                     Bitmask of incompatible features. An implementation must
@@ -164,6 +164,45 @@ in the description of a field.
         100 - 103:  header_length
                     Length of the header structure in bytes. For version 2
                     images, the length is always assumed to be 72 bytes.
+                    For version 3 it's at least 104 bytes and must be a multiple
+                    of 8.
+
+
+=== Additional fields (version 3 and higher) ===
+
+In general, these fields are optional and may be safely ignored by the software,
+as well as filled by zeros (which is equal to field absence), if software needs
+to set field B, but does not care about field A which precedes B. More
+formally, additional fields have the following compatibility rules:
+
+1. If the value of the additional field must not be ignored for correct
+handling of the file, it will be accompanied by a corresponding incompatible
+feature bit.
+
+2. If there are no unrecognized incompatible feature bits set, an unknown
+additional field may be safely ignored other than preserving its value when
+rewriting the image header.
+
+3. An explicit value of 0 will have the same behavior as when the field is not
+present*, if not altered by a specific incompatible bit.
+
+*. A field is considered not present when header_length is less than or equal
+to the field's offset. Also, all additional fields are not present for
+version 2.
+
+        < ... No additional fields in the header currently ... >
+
+
+=== Header padding ===
+
+@header_length must be a multiple of 8, which means that if the end of the last
+additional field is not aligned, some padding is needed. This padding must be
+zeroed, so that if some existing (or future) additional field will fall into
+the padding, it will be interpreted accordingly to point [3.] of the previous
+paragraph, i.e.  in the same manner as when this field is not present.
+
+
+=== Header extensions ===
 
 Directly after the image header, optional sections called header extensions can
 be stored. Each extension has a structure like the following: