Re: x-blockdev-reopen & block-dirty-bitmaps

[John Snow]

On 2/14/20 3:19 PM, Kevin Wolf wrote:
> Am 14.02.2020 um 19:54 hat John Snow geschrieben:
>> Hi, what work remains to make this a stable interface, is it known?
>>
>> We're having a problem with bitmaps where in some cases libvirt wants to
>> commit an image back down to a base image but -- for various reasons --
>> the bitmap was left enabled in the backing image, so it would accrue new
>> writes during the commit.
>>
>> Normally, when creating a snapshot using blockdev-snapshot, the backing
>> file becomes RO and all of the bitmaps become RO too.
>>
>> The goal is to be able to disable (or enable) bitmaps from a backing
>> file before (or atomically just before) a commit operation to allow
>> libvirt greater control on snapshot commit.
>>
>> Now, in my own testing, we can reopen a backing file just fine, delete
>> or disable a bitmap and be done with it -- but the interface isn't
>> stable, so libvirt will be reluctant to use such tricks.
>>
>> Probably a loaded question, but:
>>
>> - What's needed to make the interface stable?
>> - Are there known problem points?
>> - Any suggestions for workarounds in the meantime?
> 
> I think I've asked this before, but I don't remember the answer...
> 
> What would be the problem with letting the enable/disable command
> temporarily reopen the backing file read-write, like the commit job [1]
> does?
> 

I guess no problem? I wouldn't want it to do this automatically, but
perhaps we could add a "force=True" bool where it tries to do just this.

(And once reopen works properly we could deprecate this workaround again.)

> Kevin
> 
> [1] I mean, I know that this code is wrong strictly speaking because we
>     really should be counting read-write users [2] rather than blindly
>     making the node read-only at the end of the operation - but somehow
>     it seems to work in practice for commit jobs.
> 
> [2] Counting really means just looking at parent BdrvChild links that
>     have WRITE permissions. I guess doing it right would mean getting
>     rid of BlockDriverState.read_only (which is redundant) and using
>     only permissions.
> 

OK, sounds good. I'll make a mockup that tries to accurately detect
read-only-ness and reverts changes only if it made any to begin with.

--js