Re: [Qemu-devel] [PATCH v2 06/16] block: do not parse BDRV_O_CACHE_WB in raw block drivers

[Kevin Wolf]

Am 13.09.2012 23:45, schrieb Jeff Cody:
> On 09/13/2012 04:29 PM, Paolo Bonzini wrote:
>> Il 13/09/2012 21:44, Paolo Bonzini ha scritto:
>>> Il 13/09/2012 21:04, Jeff Cody ha scritto:
>>>>>> Perhaps we _should_ preserve that in bs->open_flags, while still using
>>>>>> the initial value of BDRV_O_CACHE_WB to initialize 
>>>>>> bs->enable_write_cache.
>>>> That would work.  Part of the problem is that BDRV_O_CACHE_WB seems
>>>> overloaded; maybe bdrv_parse_cache_flags() should set a new flag, called
>>>> BDRV_O_CACHE_WCE, which can be used in lieu of enable_write_cache
>>>> (similar to getting rid of keep_read_only in favor of
>>>>  BDRV_O_ALLOW_RDWR).  And then bdrv_parse_cache_flags() would just not
>>>> set BDRV_O_CACHE_WB, which can then be used exclusively by the lower
>>>> layers for their parsing (and bdrv_open_common would just set
>>>> bs->open_flags to always have BDRV_O_CACHE_WB).
>>>>
>>>> Then patch 2/16 would change to having bdrv_set_enable_write_cache()
>>>> toggle BDRV_O_CACHE_WCE.
>>>>
>>>
>>> Yeah, that would work.
>>>
>>> Alternatively, we can keep this patch and leave bdrv_open_common as is;
>>> but then I would also prefer if raw-{posix,win32} took care of setting
>>> BDRV_O_CACHE_WB in bs->open_flags, so that the flags are consistent.
>>> This setting of BDRV_O_CACHE_WB can be extended later to other formats.
>>
>> Hmm, no, what was I thinking...
>>
>> But there is a very simple thing we can do:
>>
>> - patch 2 can be left as is
>>
>> - in patch 3 bdrv_reopen_queue, always add BDRV_O_CACHE_WB to
>> bs_entry->state.flags
>>
>> - in patch 3 bdrv_reopen_commit, always leave BDRV_O_CACHE_WB aside:
>>
>>     reopen_state->bs->open_flags         =
>>          (bs->open_flags & BDRV_O_CACHE_WB) |
>>          (reopen_state->flags & ~BDRV_O_CACHE_WB);
>>
>> - this patch can be dropped completely.
>>
> 
> Yes, I think that would work.  The only thing I don't like is that
> BDRV_O_CACHE_WB still remains a bit confusing when looking through the
> code... bs->open_flags does not actually represent the open flags.
> 
> With what I proposed above, here are the steps needed:
> 
> - bdrv_parse_cache_flags() sets BDRV_O_CACHE_WCE instead of
>   BDRV_O_CACHE_WB
> 
> - BDRV_O_CACHE_WCE is used everywhere enable_write_cache was used
> 
> - bs->enable_write_cache is removed
> 
> - this patch is dropped
> 
> - bdrv_open_common() sets bs->open_flags to have BDRV_O_CACHE_WB enabled
>   by default.
> 
> - The only way BDRV_O_CACHE_WB would get cleared from bs->open_flags now
>   would be if someone explicitly cleared it during a bdrv_reopen().

This feels totally wrong. Your BDRV_O_CACHE_WCE is what BDRV_O_CACHE_WB
should be; removing bs->enable_write_cache in favour of a fix
BDRV_O_CACHE_WB makes sense, though (maybe we need to consider renaming
bs->open_flags then, it really hasn't anything to do with open and
more). All block drivers, including raw-{posix,win32}, should completely
ignore the flag in their .bdrv_open implementation, this flag is purely
for the generic block layer. Drivers always open everything writeback
and provide a flush function. They already do today, because today's
broken BDRV_O_CACHE_WB is always set.

Kevin