Re: [PATCH v3 1/1] qemu-img: Add --target-is-zero to convert

[Eric Blake]

On 2/4/20 8:21 AM, David Edmondson wrote:
> On Tuesday, 2020-02-04 at 07:31:52 -06, Eric Blake wrote:
>
> > On 2/4/20 3:52 AM, David Edmondson wrote:
> > > In many cases the target of a convert operation is a newly provisioned
> > > target that the user knows is blank (filled with zeroes). In this
> >
> > 'filled with zeroes' is accurate for a preallocated image, but reads
> > awkwardly for a sparse image; it might be better to state 'reads as zero'.

> > > +++ b/docs/interop/qemu-img.rst
> > > @@ -214,6 +214,12 @@ Parameters to convert subcommand:
> > >      will still be printed.  Areas that cannot be read from the source will be
> > >      treated as containing only zeroes.
> > >    
> > > +.. option:: --target-is-zero
> > > +
> > > +  Assume that the destination is filled with zeros. This parameter is
> >
> > Spelled 'zeroes' just three lines earlier.
>
> My understanding is that "zeros" is the correct plural of "zero" (and
> that "zeroes" relates to the use of "zero" as a verb), but perhaps
> that's another British English thing?
>
> I don't care enough to fight about it.

https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/3824/what-is-the-plural-form-of-zero 
says both zeros and zeroes are fine for the noun (with UK leaning more 
to zeros), but only zeroes for the verb; but also concedes that zeroes 
is gaining in popularity over time.  I likewise won't bother tweaking 
your patch (I see in v4 that you left it unchanged).

--
Eric Blake, Principal Software Engineer
Red Hat, Inc.           +1-919-301-3226
Virtualization:  qemu.org | libvirt.org