On 04/04/2016 03:04 PM, Denis V. Lunev wrote:
In v1 we have had 'status' field, which can have the
following values for dirty request:
+ - `NBD_STATE_DIRTY` (0x0), LBA extent is dirty;
+ - `NBD_STATE_CLEAN` (0x1), LBA extent is clean.
in the extent structure:
+ * 64 bits, offset (unsigned)
+ * 32 bits, length (unsigned)
+ * 16 bits, status (unsigned)
Between v1 and v2, we dropped 64-bit offset (offset is now implied, by
adding lengths of all earlier descriptors), and widened status from 16
bits to 32 bits (so that each descriptor is now naturally 8-byte aligned
and therefore easier to make a C array).
with an additional NBD_STATE_DIRTY_HOLE or (DIRTY_DEALLOCATED)
we could report the entire state using one query. The user could be
able to read entire state which is useful for backup at once.
Your current proposal is more tricky and it was misunderstood by Alex:
+ * 32 bits, status flags
and you describe flags as
+ - `NBD_STATE_HOLE` (bit 0); if set, the block represents a hole
+ - `NBD_STATE_ZERO` (bit 1), if set, the block contents read as
+ - `NBD_STATE_CLEAN` (bit 2); if set, the block represents a
and opinion of Alex was that all 3 bits could be set in reply to
NBD_CMD_BLOCK_STATUS
with NBD_CMD_FLAG_STATUS_DIRTY set.
This confused him. This confuses me too.
There's nothing that says that NBD_STATE_CLEAN can't be reassigned to
bit 0. Conversely, we may want to add a future NBD_CMD_FLAG_FOO that
lets you read allocation and dirty information in the same call, in
which case having the bits be distinct will make that easier; but where
we would also make it obvious that the server is allowed to reject that
command flag as unsupported (we already state the server can reject
NBD_CMD_FLAG_STATUS_DIRTY with EINVAL as unsupported; and that it if
does not reject a dirtiness request but cannot otherwise report
anything, then the entire region is reported as dirty).
I don't have any strong opinions on whether NBD_STATE_CLEAN should
remain bit 2 or be renumbered to bit 0, although renumbering it to bit 0
would make it painfully obvious that you cannot query allocation and
dirtiness at the same time.