diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 66f6aaa9..c2ddb988 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -29,6 +29,19 @@
 ## 4.10.0
 Expected: February 2021
 
+### C/CLI-API changes on existing features
+
+Developers may need to change their code
+
+* Added `cvv_i` output parameter to `api_path_fmt2api_path()` to see how many cvv entries were used.
+
+### API changes on existing protocol/config features
+
+Users may have to change how they access the system
+
+* CLIspec dbxml API: Ability to specify deletion of _any_ vs _specific_ entry.
+  * In a cli_del() call, the cvv arg list either exactly matches the api-format-path in which case _any_ deletion is specified, otherwise, if there is an extra element in the cvv list, that is used for a specific delete.
+
 ### Corrected Bugs
 
 * [Presence container configs not displayed in 'show config set' #164 ](https://github.com/clicon/clixon/issues/164)
diff --git a/apps/cli/cli_auto.c b/apps/cli/cli_auto.c
index 4b679afa..30470181 100644
--- a/apps/cli/cli_auto.c
+++ b/apps/cli/cli_auto.c
@@ -172,7 +172,7 @@ cli_auto_edit(clicon_handle h,
 	goto done;
     }
     /* get api-path and xpath */
-    if (api_path_fmt2api_path(api_path_fmt, cvv2, &api_path) < 0)
+    if (api_path_fmt2api_path(api_path_fmt, cvv2, &api_path, NULL) < 0)
 	goto done;
     /* Store this as edit-mode */
     if (clicon_data_set(h, "cli-edit-mode", api_path) < 0)
@@ -250,7 +250,7 @@ cli_auto_up(clicon_handle h,
 	cvec_append_var(cvv1, cv);	
     }
     /* get api-path and xpath */
-    if (api_path_fmt2api_path(api_path_fmt1, cvv1, &api_path) < 0)
+    if (api_path_fmt2api_path(api_path_fmt1, cvv1, &api_path, NULL) < 0)
 	goto done;
     /* Store this as edit-mode */
     clicon_data_set(h, "cli-edit-mode", api_path);
@@ -660,7 +660,7 @@ cli_auto_sub_enter(clicon_handle h,
 	if (cvec_append_var(cvv1, cvec_i(cvv, i)) < 0)
 	    goto done;
     }
-    if (api_path_fmt2api_path(api_path_fmt, cvv1, &api_path) < 0)
+    if (api_path_fmt2api_path(api_path_fmt, cvv1, &api_path, NULL) < 0)
 	goto done;
     /* Assign the variables */
     if ((cvv2 = cvec_append(clicon_data_cvec_get(h, "cli-edit-cvv"), cvv1)) == NULL)
diff --git a/apps/cli/cli_common.c b/apps/cli/cli_common.c
index 40ea7d98..9ce400be 100644
--- a/apps/cli/cli_common.c
+++ b/apps/cli/cli_common.c
@@ -251,6 +251,7 @@ cli_dbxml(clicon_handle       h,
     cxobj     *xerr = NULL;
     int        ret;
     cg_var    *cv;
+    int        cvv_i = 0;
 
     if (cvec_len(argv) != 1){
 	clicon_err(OE_PLUGIN, EINVAL, "Requires one element to be xml key format string");
@@ -262,7 +263,10 @@ cli_dbxml(clicon_handle       h,
     }
     arg = cvec_i(argv, 0);
     api_path_fmt = cv_string_get(arg);
-    if (api_path_fmt2api_path(api_path_fmt, cvv, &api_path) < 0)
+    /* Transform template format string + cvv to actual api-path 
+     * cvv_i indicates if all cvv entries were used
+     */
+    if (api_path_fmt2api_path(api_path_fmt, cvv, &api_path, &cvv_i) < 0)
 	goto done;
     /* Create config top-of-tree */
     if ((xtop = xml_new("config", NULL, CX_ELMNT)) == NULL)
@@ -292,9 +296,17 @@ cli_dbxml(clicon_handle       h,
     /* Add body last in case of leaf */
     if (cvec_len(cvv) > 1 &&
 	(yang_keyword_get(y) == Y_LEAF)){
-	/* Add the body last */
-	if (dbxml_body(xbot, cvv) < 0)
-	    goto done;
+	/* Add the body last if there is remaining element that was not used in the
+	 * earlier api-path transformation.
+	 * This is to handle differences between:
+	 * DELETE <foo>bar</foo> and DELETE <foo/>
+	 * i.e., (1) deletion of a specific leaf entry vs (2) deletion of any entry
+	 * Discussion: one can claim (1) is "bad" usage but one could see cases where
+	 * you would want to delete a value if it has a specific value but not otherwise
+	 */
+	if (cvv_i != cvec_len(cvv))
+	    if (dbxml_body(xbot, cvv) < 0)
+		goto done;
 	/* Loop over namespace context and add them to this leaf node */
 	cv = NULL;
 	while ((cv = cvec_each(nsctx, cv)) != NULL){
diff --git a/apps/cli/cli_show.c b/apps/cli/cli_show.c
index 0277677e..2eb736a6 100644
--- a/apps/cli/cli_show.c
+++ b/apps/cli/cli_show.c
@@ -121,6 +121,7 @@ expand_dbvar(void   *h,
     char            *reason = NULL;
     cvec            *nsc = NULL;
     int              ret;
+    int              cvvi = 0;
     
     if (argv == NULL || cvec_len(argv) != 2){
 	clicon_err(OE_PLUGIN, EINVAL, "requires arguments: <db> <xmlkeyfmt>");
@@ -150,7 +151,7 @@ expand_dbvar(void   *h,
      * api_path: -->  /interface/eth0/address/.*
      * xpath:    -->  /interface/[name="eth0"]/address
      */
-    if (api_path_fmt2api_path(api_path_fmt, cvv, &api_path) < 0)
+    if (api_path_fmt2api_path(api_path_fmt, cvv, &api_path, &cvvi) < 0)
 	goto done;
     if (api_path2xpath(api_path, yspec, &xpath, &nsc, NULL) < 0)
 	goto done;
@@ -711,6 +712,7 @@ cli_show_auto1(clicon_handle h,
     char            *prefix = NULL;
     enum rfc_6020    ys_keyword;
     int		     i = 0;
+    int              cvvi = 0;
 
     if (cvec_len(argv) < 3 || cvec_len(argv) > 4){
 	clicon_err(OE_PLUGIN, EINVAL, "Usage: <api-path-fmt>* <database> <format> <prefix>. (*) generated.");
@@ -734,7 +736,7 @@ cli_show_auto1(clicon_handle h,
 	clicon_err(OE_FATAL, 0, "No DB_SPEC");
 	goto done;
     }
-    if (api_path_fmt2api_path(api_path_fmt, cvv, &api_path) < 0)
+    if (api_path_fmt2api_path(api_path_fmt, cvv, &api_path, &cvvi) < 0)
 	goto done;
     if (api_path2xpath(api_path, yspec, &xpath, &nsc, NULL) < 0)
 	goto done;
diff --git a/lib/clixon/clixon_path.h b/lib/clixon/clixon_path.h
index 906221ec..ce033347 100644
--- a/lib/clixon/clixon_path.h
+++ b/lib/clixon/clixon_path.h
@@ -77,7 +77,7 @@ typedef struct {
  */
 int xml_yang_root(cxobj *x, cxobj **xr);
 int yang2api_path_fmt(yang_stmt *ys, int inclkey, char **api_path_fmt);
-int api_path_fmt2api_path(const char *api_path_fmt, cvec *cvv, char **api_path);
+int api_path_fmt2api_path(const char *api_path_fmt, cvec *cvv, char **api_path, int *cvvi);
 int api_path_fmt2xpath(char *api_path_fmt, cvec *cvv, char **xpath);
 int api_path2xpath(char *api_path, yang_stmt *yspec, char **xpath, cvec **nsc, cxobj **xerr);
 int api_path2xml(char *api_path, yang_stmt *yspec, cxobj *xtop, 
diff --git a/lib/src/clixon_path.c b/lib/src/clixon_path.c
index 0c6cdcb1..d2413c0a 100644
--- a/lib/src/clixon_path.c
+++ b/lib/src/clixon_path.c
@@ -424,6 +424,8 @@ yang2api_path_fmt(yang_stmt   *ys,
  * @param[in]  api_path_fmt  XML key format, eg /aaa/%s/name
  * @param[in]  cvv           cligen variable vector, one for every wildchar in api_path_fmt
  * @param[out] api_path      api_path, eg /aaa/17. Free after use
+ * @param[out] cvvi          1..cvv-len. Index into cvv of last cvv entry used, For example, 
+ *                           if same as len of cvv, all were used, if < some entries were not
  * @retval     0             OK
  * @retval     -1            Error
  * @note first and last elements of cvv are not used,..
@@ -446,16 +448,17 @@ yang2api_path_fmt(yang_stmt   *ys,
 int
 api_path_fmt2api_path(const char *api_path_fmt, 
 		      cvec       *cvv, 
-		      char      **api_path)
+		      char      **api_path,
+		      int        *cvv_i)
 {
-    int   retval = -1;
-    char  c;
-    int   esc=0;
-    cbuf *cb = NULL;
-    int   i;
-    int   j;
-    char *str;
-    char *strenc=NULL;
+    int     retval = -1;
+    char    c;
+    int     esc=0;
+    cbuf   *cb = NULL;
+    int     i;
+    int     j;
+    char   *str;
+    char   *strenc=NULL;
     cg_var *cv;
     
     if ((cb = cbuf_new()) == NULL){
@@ -498,6 +501,8 @@ api_path_fmt2api_path(const char *api_path_fmt,
 	clicon_err(OE_UNIX, errno, "strdup");
 	goto done;
     }
+    if (cvv_i) /* Last entry in cvv used */
+	*cvv_i = j; 
     retval = 0;
  done:
     if (cb)
diff --git a/test/test_upgrade_simple.sh b/test/test_upgrade_simple.sh
index ab0b21a1..fba067c1 100755
--- a/test/test_upgrade_simple.sh
+++ b/test/test_upgrade_simple.sh
@@ -59,7 +59,7 @@ if [ $BE -ne 0 ]; then
     new "start backend -s init -f $cfg"
     start_backend -s init -f $cfg
 
-    new "waiting"
+    new "wait backend"
     wait_backend
 fi
 
@@ -69,6 +69,9 @@ expecteof "$clixon_netconf -qf $cfg" 0 "<rpc $DEFAULTNS><edit-config><target><ca
 new "netconf commit"
 expecteof "$clixon_netconf -qf $cfg" 0 "<rpc $DEFAULTNS><commit/></rpc>]]>]]>" "^<rpc-reply $DEFAULTNS><ok/></rpc-reply>]]>]]>$"
 
+# race condition where backend is killed before flushed to disk
+sleep $DEMSLEEP
+
 new "Kill backend"
 # Check if premature kill
 pid=$(pgrep -u root -f clixon_backend)