Re: [Qemu-devel] [PATCHv3 00/20] block: logical block provisioning enhancements

[Stefan Hajnoczi]

On Mon, Oct 7, 2013 at 11:42 AM, Paolo Bonzini <address@hidden> wrote:
> Il 07/10/2013 10:42, Stefan Hajnoczi ha scritto:
>> Could you make bdrv_co_write_zeroes() always use UNMAP, if possible, and
>> avoid adding the new BDRV_REQ_MAY_UNMAP flag?  While reading the first
>> few patches in this series I wondered why there is a need to expose
>> flags at all...
>>
>> Sometimes it is useful to distinguish between zeroing at the image
>> format level from discarding at the device level, but I don't think we
>> make use of that yet.  I'd prefer to keep the interface simple for now
>> and add flags later, if necessary.
>>
>> Or maybe I just missed something ;)
>
> The flag is needed to implement the right semantics for the SCSI WRITE
> SAME command, which are:
>
> - if the UNMAP bit is off, always write the sectors (that's
> bdrv_aio_write_zeroes without BDRV_REQ_MAY_UNMAP if the payload is zero,
> otherwise it's emulated with bdrv_aio_writev)
>
> - if the target can "discard and write the specified payload", you can
> discard, else you must write the sectors with the correct payload
> (that's bdrv_aio_write_zeroes with BDRV_REQ_MAY_UNMAP).
>
> Contrast this with the UNMAP command, which does not make any guarantee
> on the content of the sectors after the command is completed (a few
> months ago we agreed that, even if you have discard_zeroes=true in the
> target, it is fine for UNMAP to do nothing).

Okay, then let's keep the patches to expose the flag.

Stefan