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Documentation / device-mapper / persistent-data.txt


Based on kernel version 4.16.1. Page generated on 2018-04-09 11:52 EST.

1	Introduction
2	============
3	
4	The more-sophisticated device-mapper targets require complex metadata
5	that is managed in kernel.  In late 2010 we were seeing that various
6	different targets were rolling their own data structures, for example:
7	
8	- Mikulas Patocka's multisnap implementation
9	- Heinz Mauelshagen's thin provisioning target
10	- Another btree-based caching target posted to dm-devel
11	- Another multi-snapshot target based on a design of Daniel Phillips
12	
13	Maintaining these data structures takes a lot of work, so if possible
14	we'd like to reduce the number.
15	
16	The persistent-data library is an attempt to provide a re-usable
17	framework for people who want to store metadata in device-mapper
18	targets.  It's currently used by the thin-provisioning target and an
19	upcoming hierarchical storage target.
20	
21	Overview
22	========
23	
24	The main documentation is in the header files which can all be found
25	under drivers/md/persistent-data.
26	
27	The block manager
28	-----------------
29	
30	dm-block-manager.[hc]
31	
32	This provides access to the data on disk in fixed sized-blocks.  There
33	is a read/write locking interface to prevent concurrent accesses, and
34	keep data that is being used in the cache.
35	
36	Clients of persistent-data are unlikely to use this directly.
37	
38	The transaction manager
39	-----------------------
40	
41	dm-transaction-manager.[hc]
42	
43	This restricts access to blocks and enforces copy-on-write semantics.
44	The only way you can get hold of a writable block through the
45	transaction manager is by shadowing an existing block (ie. doing
46	copy-on-write) or allocating a fresh one.  Shadowing is elided within
47	the same transaction so performance is reasonable.  The commit method
48	ensures that all data is flushed before it writes the superblock.
49	On power failure your metadata will be as it was when last committed.
50	
51	The Space Maps
52	--------------
53	
54	dm-space-map.h
55	dm-space-map-metadata.[hc]
56	dm-space-map-disk.[hc]
57	
58	On-disk data structures that keep track of reference counts of blocks.
59	Also acts as the allocator of new blocks.  Currently two
60	implementations: a simpler one for managing blocks on a different
61	device (eg. thinly-provisioned data blocks); and one for managing
62	the metadata space.  The latter is complicated by the need to store
63	its own data within the space it's managing.
64	
65	The data structures
66	-------------------
67	
68	dm-btree.[hc]
69	dm-btree-remove.c
70	dm-btree-spine.c
71	dm-btree-internal.h
72	
73	Currently there is only one data structure, a hierarchical btree.
74	There are plans to add more.  For example, something with an
75	array-like interface would see a lot of use.
76	
77	The btree is 'hierarchical' in that you can define it to be composed
78	of nested btrees, and take multiple keys.  For example, the
79	thin-provisioning target uses a btree with two levels of nesting.
80	The first maps a device id to a mapping tree, and that in turn maps a
81	virtual block to a physical block.
82	
83	Values stored in the btrees can have arbitrary size.  Keys are always
84	64bits, although nesting allows you to use multiple keys.
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