qemu-devel
[Top][All Lists]
Advanced

[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: [Qemu-devel] [Qemu-block] [PATCH 6/6] docs: Document how to stream t


From: Max Reitz
Subject: Re: [Qemu-devel] [Qemu-block] [PATCH 6/6] docs: Document how to stream to an intermediate layer
Date: Wed, 15 Apr 2015 18:25:38 +0200
User-agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:31.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/31.6.0

On 08.04.2015 16:43, Alberto Garcia wrote:
Signed-off-by: Alberto Garcia <address@hidden>
---
  docs/live-block-ops.txt | 32 ++++++++++++++++++++------------
  1 file changed, 20 insertions(+), 12 deletions(-)

diff --git a/docs/live-block-ops.txt b/docs/live-block-ops.txt
index a257087..5e969fd 100644
--- a/docs/live-block-ops.txt
+++ b/docs/live-block-ops.txt
@@ -10,9 +10,9 @@ Snapshot live merge
  Given a snapshot chain, described in this document in the following
  format:
-[A] -> [B] -> [C] -> [D]
+[A] -> [B] -> [C] -> [D] -> [E]
-Where the rightmost object ([D] in the example) described is the current
+Where the rightmost object ([E] in the example) described is the current
  image which the guest OS has write access to. To the left of it is its base
  image, and so on accordingly until the leftmost image, which has no
  base.
@@ -21,28 +21,36 @@ The snapshot live merge operation transforms such a chain 
into a
  smaller one with fewer elements, such as this transformation relative
  to the first example:
-[A] -> [D]
+[A] -> [E]
-Currently only forward merge with target being the active image is
-supported, that is, data copy is performed in the right direction with
-destination being the rightmost image.
+Data is copied in the right direction with destination being the
+rightmost image, but any other intermediate image can be specified
+instead, [D] in this example:

"for instance from [B] into/to [D]"?

+
+[A] -> [B] -> [D] -> [E]
The operation is implemented in QEMU through image streaming facilities. The basic idea is to execute 'block_stream virtio0' while the guest is
  running. Progress can be monitored using 'info block-jobs'. When the
  streaming operation completes it raises a QMP event. 'block_stream'
-copies data from the backing file(s) into the active image. When finished,
-it adjusts the backing file pointer.
+copies data from the backing file(s) into the destination image.
+When finished, it adjusts the backing file pointer.

Well, the example given here ("block_stream virtio0") would actually copy the data into the active image. It's not that "destination image" is wrong, but in this case, it really is the active image, so I don't think this change is necessary.

-The 'base' parameter specifies an image which data need not be streamed from.
-This image will be used as the backing file for the active image when the
-operation is finished.
+The 'base' parameter specifies an image which data need not be
+streamed from. This image will be used as the backing file for the
+destination image when the operation is finished.

Here, the change is fine, because this paragraph is detached from the example (which does not make use of the @base parameter).

-In the example above, the command would be:
+In the first example above, the command would be:
(qemu) block_stream virtio0 A

I'd like it if you could change the "A" to "A-filename", "filename-A", or something like that, to make clear it's a filename and not a node name. (I'd personally expect a node name, but I guess block-stream is simply older than node names are).

+In order to specify a destination image different from the active
+(rightmost) one we can use its (previously set) node name instead.
+
+In the second example above, the command would be:
+
+(qemu) block_stream node-D A

Hm, wouldn't this yield the chain "A -> D -> E" instead of "A -> B -> D -> E"?

Max

Live block copy
  ===============




reply via email to

[Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread]