diff --git a/target/arm/arm-semi.c b/target/arm/arm-semi.c
index 3273306c8ea..9e5a414dd89 100644
--- a/target/arm/arm-semi.c
+++ b/target/arm/arm-semi.c
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
  *  Arm "Angel" semihosting syscalls
  *
  *  Copyright (c) 2005, 2007 CodeSourcery.
+ *  Copyright (c) 2019 Linaro
  *  Written by Paul Brook.
  *
  *  This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
@@ -16,6 +17,10 @@
  *
  *  You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
  *  along with this program; if not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+ *
+ *  ARM Semihosting is documented in:
+ *     Semihosting for AArch32 and AArch64 Release 2.0
+ *     https://static.docs.arm.com/100863/0200/semihosting.pdf
  */
 
 #include "qemu/osdep.h"
@@ -240,6 +245,15 @@ static target_ulong arm_gdb_syscall(ARMCPU *cpu, gdb_syscall_complete_cb cb,
      put_user_u64(val, args + (n) * 8) :                \
      put_user_u32(val, args + (n) * 4))
 
+/*
+ * Do a semihosting call.
+ *
+ * The specification always says that the "return register" either
+ * returns a specific value or is corrupted, so we don't need to
+ * report to our caller whether we are returning a value or trying to
+ * leave the register unchanged. We use 0xdeadbeef as the return value
+ * when there isn't a defined return value for the call.
+ */
 target_ulong do_arm_semihosting(CPUARMState *env)
 {
     ARMCPU *cpu = arm_env_get_cpu(env);
@@ -510,14 +524,16 @@ target_ulong do_arm_semihosting(CPUARMState *env)
 
             output_size = ts->info->arg_end - ts->info->arg_start;
             if (!output_size) {
-                /* We special-case the "empty command line" case (argc==0).
-                   Just provide the terminating 0. */
+                /*
+                 * We special-case the "empty command line" case (argc==0).
+                 * Just provide the terminating 0.
+                 */
                 output_size = 1;
             }
 #endif
 
             if (output_size > input_size) {
-                 /* Not enough space to store command-line arguments.  */
+                /* Not enough space to store command-line arguments.  */
                 return -1;
             }
 
@@ -571,8 +587,10 @@ target_ulong do_arm_semihosting(CPUARMState *env)
             GET_ARG(0);
 
 #ifdef CONFIG_USER_ONLY
-            /* Some C libraries assume the heap immediately follows .bss, so
-               allocate it using sbrk.  */
+            /*
+             * Some C libraries assume the heap immediately follows .bss, so
+             * allocate it using sbrk.
+             */
             if (!ts->heap_limit) {
                 abi_ulong ret;
 
@@ -620,7 +638,8 @@ target_ulong do_arm_semihosting(CPUARMState *env)
         }
     case TARGET_SYS_EXIT:
         if (is_a64(env)) {
-            /* The A64 version of this call takes a parameter block,
+            /*
+             * The A64 version of this call takes a parameter block,
              * so the application-exit type can return a subcode which
              * is the exit status code from the application.
              */
@@ -633,14 +652,17 @@ target_ulong do_arm_semihosting(CPUARMState *env)
                 ret = 1;
             }
         } else {
-            /* ARM specifies only Stopped_ApplicationExit as normal
-             * exit, everything else is considered an error */
+            /*
+             * ARM specifies only Stopped_ApplicationExit as normal
+             * exit, everything else is considered an error
+             */
             ret = (args == ADP_Stopped_ApplicationExit) ? 0 : 1;
         }
         gdb_exit(env, ret);
         exit(ret);
     case TARGET_SYS_SYNCCACHE:
-        /* Clean the D-cache and invalidate the I-cache for the specified
+        /*
+         * Clean the D-cache and invalidate the I-cache for the specified
          * virtual address range. This is a nop for us since we don't
          * implement caches. This is only present on A64.
          */
