Re: [Qemu-devel] [PATCH 1/6 v11] docs: spec for add-cow file format

[Dong Xu Wang]

On Wed, Aug 1, 2012 at 9:55 PM, Stefan Hajnoczi <address@hidden> wrote:
> On Tue, Jul 31, 2012 at 5:51 PM, Dong Xu Wang
> <address@hidden> wrote:
>> Introduce a new file format:add-cow. The usage can be found at this patch.
>>
>> Signed-off-by: Dong Xu Wang <address@hidden>
>> ---
>> Now add-cow is still using QEMUOptionParameter, not QemuOpts,  I will send a
>> seperate patch series to convert.
>
> I suggest including a cover letter in future patch series:
>
> git format-patch --cover-letter --numbered -o my-series/ master..
>
> Or to do it in a single command with git-send-email(1) use the --compose 
> option.
>
> The cover letter makes it easy for reviewers to add their Reviewed-by:
> to the entire series by replying only once.  It's also a good place to
> include a changelog that tells reviewers what you changed from the
> last published version.

Okay.

>
>>  docs/specs/add-cow.txt |  128 
>> ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>>  1 files changed, 128 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
>>  create mode 100644 docs/specs/add-cow.txt
>>
>> diff --git a/docs/specs/add-cow.txt b/docs/specs/add-cow.txt
>> new file mode 100644
>> index 0000000..4793a3e
>> --- /dev/null
>> +++ b/docs/specs/add-cow.txt
>> @@ -0,0 +1,128 @@
>> +== General ==
>> +
>> +Raw file format does not support backing file and copy on write feature.
>> +The add-cow image format makes it possible to use backing files with raw
>> +image by keeping a separate .add-cow metadata file. Once all sectors
>> +have been written into the raw image it is safe to discard the .add-cow
>> +and backing files, then we can use the raw image directly.
>> +
>> +While using add-cow, procedures may like this:
>> +(ubuntu.img is a disk image which has been installed OS.)
>> +    1)  Create a raw image with the same size of ubuntu.img
>> +            qemu-img create -f raw test.raw 8G
>> +    2)  Create an add-cow image which will store dirty bitmap
>> +            qemu-img create -f add-cow test.add-cow \
>> +                -o backing_file=ubuntu.img,image_file=test.raw
>> +    3)  Run qemu with add-cow image
>> +            qemu -drive if=virtio,file=test.add-cow
>> +
>> +test.raw may be larger than ubuntu.img, in that case, the size of 
>> test.add-cow
>> +will be calculated by the size of ubuntu.img, test.raw will be used from the
>> +1st byte, the rest part can be used for other purpose.
>
> This is not how backing files normally work.  With qcow2 or qed a
> smaller backing file just means that the guest reads zeroes from the
> areas beyond the end of the backing file.  Is there a special reason
> why you want to implement the behavior you described in the spec?
> Otherwise I suggest implementing the same behavior as qcow2/qed.

The size of add-cow will be caclulated by the size of backing_file, if
backing_file can be smaller, how can I get the size of add-cow while
being created?

Do you mean like following steps?
1) qemu-img create -f qcow2 source.qcow2 *8G*
2) qemu-img create -f t.add-cow -o backing_file=source.qcow2,image_file=t *10G*
And then reading un-allocated bytes from add-cow after 8G will be 0?

>
>> +
>> +=Specification=
>> +
>> +The file format looks like this:
>> +
>> + +---------------+-------------+-----------------+
>> + |     Header    |   Reserved  |    COW bitmap   |
>> + +---------------+-------------+-----------------+
>> +
>> +All numbers in add-cow are stored in Little Endian byte order.
>> +
>> +== Header ==
>> +
>> +The Header is included in the first bytes:
>> +(#define HEADER_SIZE (4096 * header_pages_size))
>> +    Byte    0 -  7:     magic
>> +                        add-cow magic string ("ADD_COW\xff").
>> +
>> +            8 -  11:    version
>> +                        Version number (only valid value is 1 now).
>> +
>> +            12 - 15:    backing file name offset
>> +                        Offset in the add-cow file at which the backing file
>> +                        name is stored (NB: The string is not null 
>> terminated).
>> +                        If backing file name does NOT exist, this field 
>> will be
>> +                        0. Must be between 80 and [HEADER_SIZE - 2](a file 
>> name
>> +                        must be at least 1 byte).
>> +
>> +            16 - 19:    backing file name size
>> +                        Length of the backing file name in bytes. It will 
>> be 0
>> +                        if the backing file name offset is 0. If backing 
>> file
>> +                        name offset is non-zero, then it must be non-zero. 
>> Must
>> +                        be less than [HEADER_SIZE - 80] to fit in the 
>> reserved
>> +                        part of the header.
>> +
>> +            20 - 23:    image file name offset
>> +                        Offset in the add-cow file at which the image file 
>> name
>> +                        is stored (NB: The string is not null terminated). 
>> It
>> +                        must be between 80 and [HEADER_SIZE - 2].
>> +
>> +            24 - 27:    image file name size
>> +                        Length of the image file name in bytes.
>> +                        Must be less than [HEADER_SIZE - 80] to fit in the 
>> reserved
>> +                        part of the header.
>> +
>> +            28 - 35:    features
>> +                        Currently only 3 feature bit is used:
>> +                        Feature bits:
>> +                            The image uses a backing file:
>> +                            * ADD_COW_F_BACKING_FILE    = 0x01.
>> +                            The image uses a image file:
>> +                            * ADD_COW_F_IMAGE_FILE      = 0x02.
>> +                            All bits in bitmap have been set to 1, add-cow 
>> wrapper
>> +                            can be discarded.
>> +                            * ADD_COW_F_All_ALLOCATED   = 0x04.
>> +
>> +            36 - 43:    optional features
>> +                        Not used now. Researved for future use.
>
> s/Researved/Reserved/

Okay.
>
>> +
>> +            44 - 47:    header pages size
>> +                        The header field is variable-sized. This field 
>> indicates
>> +                        how many pages(4k) will be used to store add-cow 
>> header.
>> +                        In add-cow v1, it is fixed to 1, so the header size 
>> will
>> +                        be 4k * 1 = 4096 bytes.
>> +
>> +Image file name and backing file name must NOT be the same, we prevent this
>> +while creating add-cow files.
>> +
>> +Image file and backing file are interpreted relative to the qcow2 file, not
>> +to the current working directory of the process that opened the qcow2 file.
>> +
>> +== Reserved ==
>> +
>> +    Byte    48 - 63:    backing file format
>> +                        format of backing file. It will be filled with 0 if
>> +                        backing file name offset is 0. If backing file name
>> +                        offset is none-zero, it must be non-zero.
>
> s/none-zero/non-zero/
Okay.
>
>> +
>> +            64 - 79:    image file format
>> +                        format of image file. It must be non-zero.
>> +
>> +            80 - [HEADER_SIZE - 1]:
>> +                        It is used to make sure COW bitmap field starts at 
>> the
>> +                        HEADER_SIZE byte, backing file name and image file 
>> name
>> +                        will be stored here.
>> +
>> +== COW bitmap ==
>> +
>> +The "COW bitmap" field starts at the 4096th byte, stores a bitmap related to
>
> I would say it starts at offset HEADER_SIZE.  4096th byte == offset
> 0x0fff, 4097th byte == offset 0x1000.

Okay.

>
> Stefan
>

Thank you Stefan.