RunnerClient support old style commands with kwargs on top level.

1. Use low['args'] low['kwargs'] if specified and not empty in the low data.
2. Lookup root level and set kwargs in low data if missing.

salt/minion.py

@@ -262,7 +262,7 @@ def parse_args_and_kwargs(func, args, data=None):
     return load_args_and_kwargs(func, args, data=data)
 
 
-def load_args_and_kwargs(func, args, data=None):
+def load_args_and_kwargs(func, args, data=None, ignore_invalid=False):
     '''
     Detect the args and kwargs that need to be passed to a function call, and
     check them against what was passed.
@@ -316,7 +316,7 @@ def load_args_and_kwargs(func, args, data=None):
         else:
             _args.append(arg)
 
-    if invalid_kwargs:
+    if invalid_kwargs and not ignore_invalid:
         salt.utils.invalid_kwargs(invalid_kwargs)
 
     if argspec.keywords and isinstance(data, dict):

salt/netapi/__init__.py

@@ -141,10 +141,6 @@ class NetapiClient(object):
         :return: Returns the result from the runner module
         '''
         kwargs['fun'] = fun
-        if 'kwargs' not in kwargs:
-            kwargs['kwargs'] = {}
-        if 'args' not in kwargs:
-            kwargs['args'] = []
         runner = salt.runner.RunnerClient(self.opts)
         return runner.cmd_sync(kwargs, timeout=timeout)
 
@@ -160,10 +156,6 @@ class NetapiClient(object):
         :return: event data and a job ID for the executed function.
         '''
         kwargs['fun'] = fun
-        if 'kwargs' not in kwargs:
-            kwargs['kwargs'] = {}
-        if 'args' not in kwargs:
-            kwargs['args'] = []
         runner = salt.runner.RunnerClient(self.opts)
         return runner.cmd_async(kwargs)
 

salt/runner.py

@@ -59,8 +59,24 @@ class RunnerClient(mixins.SyncClientMixin, mixins.AsyncClientMixin, object):
         auth_creds = dict([(i, low.pop(i)) for i in [
                 'username', 'password', 'eauth', 'token', 'client',
             ] if i in low])
-        reformatted_low = {'fun': low.pop('fun')}
+        fun = low.pop('fun')
+        reformatted_low = {'fun': fun}
         reformatted_low.update(auth_creds)
+        # Support old style calls where arguments could be specified in 'low' top level
+        if not low.get('args') and not low.get('kwargs'):  # not specified or empty
+            verify_fun(self.functions, fun)
+            args, kwargs = salt.minion.load_args_and_kwargs(
+                self.functions[fun],
+                salt.utils.args.condition_input([], low),
+                self.opts,
+                ignore_invalid=True
+            )
+            low['args'] = args
+            low['kwargs'] = kwargs
+        if 'kwargs' not in low:
+            low['kwargs'] = {}
+        if 'args' not in low:
+            low['args'] = []
         reformatted_low['kwarg'] = low
         return reformatted_low