From patchwork Wed Apr 10 08:11:48 2013 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Patchwork-Submitter: Robert Wang X-Patchwork-Id: 235330 Return-Path: X-Original-To: incoming@patchwork.ozlabs.org Delivered-To: patchwork-incoming@bilbo.ozlabs.org Received: from lists.gnu.org (lists.gnu.org [208.118.235.17]) (using TLSv1 with cipher AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (Client did not present a certificate) by ozlabs.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 529032C016F for ; Wed, 10 Apr 2013 18:13:06 +1000 (EST) Received: from localhost ([::1]:56399 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1UPq9Q-0002EV-Ca for incoming@patchwork.ozlabs.org; Wed, 10 Apr 2013 04:13:04 -0400 Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([208.118.235.92]:47768) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1UPq8v-00029b-0n for qemu-devel@nongnu.org; Wed, 10 Apr 2013 04:12:34 -0400 Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1UPq8t-0008MD-5M for qemu-devel@nongnu.org; Wed, 10 Apr 2013 04:12:32 -0400 Received: from mail-pa0-f43.google.com ([209.85.220.43]:43092) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1UPq8s-0008M6-T4 for qemu-devel@nongnu.org; Wed, 10 Apr 2013 04:12:31 -0400 Received: by mail-pa0-f43.google.com with SMTP id hz11so183787pad.2 for ; Wed, 10 Apr 2013 01:12:30 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=20120113; h=x-received:sender:from:to:cc:subject:date:message-id:x-mailer :in-reply-to:references; bh=9qSx+ymYtkE2p/mbalarGwOHuiWbWv5XXwG9hf5RFXs=; b=cf8PH8oMXzwqsPYsHmayGpY9Ubzblc10DaF9XrewUBOqvcGGwdBiaLUcs7B+X8O4l5 tYAJYI/gHVQxMd56Flr4ox9kQItfEgVDstxs5xgLAYTlgvw9hiE4KKtCF4GviF15Zppg /fPDwV4OA4YaDVCsUqBE9Zse1b1l9C4AlQeOiAcLWT4D7n2rBFFIICkn9YUUrIIPVsRB /kMDn4BCYmROik8WA9oSIvn7lM/7G3nbgwrOfbl1OaidiQrkSKq0k52HnDrznELYA/hE 8rEgBlLn1XE2XCieoL+PEh2jlEcetaDNrMucLVV59CXRVEqcIO4exW9yp5GO6XBg/YxC HHFQ== X-Received: by 10.66.123.5 with SMTP id lw5mr2098833pab.132.1365581550301; Wed, 10 Apr 2013 01:12:30 -0700 (PDT) Received: from localhost.localdomain ([202.108.130.138]) by mx.google.com with ESMTPS id wl5sm33042619pac.18.2013.04.10.01.12.22 (version=TLSv1.1 cipher=ECDHE-RSA-RC4-SHA bits=128/128); Wed, 10 Apr 2013 01:12:29 -0700 (PDT) From: Dong Xu Wang To: qemu-devel@nongnu.org Date: Wed, 10 Apr 2013 16:11:48 +0800 Message-Id: <1365581513-3475-2-git-send-email-wdongxu@linux.vnet.ibm.com> X-Mailer: git-send-email 1.7.10.4 In-Reply-To: <1365581513-3475-1-git-send-email-wdongxu@linux.vnet.ibm.com> References: <1365581513-3475-1-git-send-email-wdongxu@linux.vnet.ibm.com> X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 3.x [fuzzy] X-Received-From: 209.85.220.43 Cc: Dong Xu Wang , kwol@redhat.com, wdongxu@cn.ibm.com, stefanha@redhat.com Subject: [Qemu-devel] [PATCH V18 1/6] docs: document for add-cow file format X-BeenThere: qemu-devel@nongnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: qemu-devel-bounces+incoming=patchwork.ozlabs.org@nongnu.org Sender: qemu-devel-bounces+incoming=patchwork.ozlabs.org@nongnu.org Document for add-cow format, the usage and spec of add-cow are introduced. Signed-off-by: Dong Xu Wang --- V17->V18: 1) remove version field. 2) header size is maximum value and cluster size value. 3) fix type. docs/specs/add-cow.txt | 165 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 165 insertions(+) create mode 100644 docs/specs/add-cow.txt diff --git a/docs/specs/add-cow.txt b/docs/specs/add-cow.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..151028b --- /dev/null +++ b/docs/specs/add-cow.txt @@ -0,0 +1,165 @@ +== General == + +The raw file format does not support backing files or copy on write +feature. The add-cow image format makes it possible to use backing +files with a image by keeping a separate .add-cow metadata file. +Once all clusters have been written into the image it is safe to +discard the .add-cow and backing files, then we can use the image +directly. + +An example usage of add-cow would look like: +(ubuntu.img is a disk image which has an installed OS.) + 1) Create a image, such as raw format, with the same size of + ubuntu.img: + qemu-img create -f raw test.raw 8G + 2) Create an add-cow image which will store dirty bitmap + qemu-img create -f add-cow test.add-cow \ + -o backing_file=ubuntu.img,image_file=test.raw + 3) Run qemu with add-cow image + qemu -drive if=virtio,file=test.add-cow + +test.raw may be larger than ubuntu.img, in that case, the size of +test.add-cow will be calculated from the size of test.raw. + +image_fmt can be omitted, in that case image_fmt is assumed to be +"raw". backing_fmt can also be omitted, add-cow should do a probe +operation and determine what the backing file's format is. + +=Specification= + +The file format looks like this: + + +---------------+-------------------------------+ + | Header | COW bitmap | + +---------------+-------------------------------+ + +All numbers in add-cow are stored in Little Endian byte order. + +== Header == + +The Header is included in the first bytes: +(HEADER_SIZE is defined in 40-43 bytes.) + Byte 0 - 3: magic + add-cow magic string ("ACOW"). + + 4 - 7: backing file name offset + Offset in the add-cow file at which the backing + file name is stored (NB: The string is not + lNUL-terminated). + If backing file name does NOT exist, this field + will be 0. Must be between 76 and [HEADER_SIZE + - 2](a file name must be at least 1 byte). + + 8 - 11: backing file name size + Length of the backing file name in bytes. It + will be 0 if the backing file name offset is + 0. If backing file name offset is non-zero, + then it must be non-zero. Must be less than + [HEADER_SIZE - 76] to fit in the reserved + part of the header. Backing file name offset + + size must be no more than HEADER_SIZE. + + 12 - 15: image file name offset + Offset in the add-cow file at which the image + file name is stored (NB: The string is not + NUL-terminated). It must be between 76 and + [HEADER_SIZE - 2]. Image file name size + offset + must be no more than HEADER_SIZE. + + 16 - 19: image file name size + Length of the image file name in bytes. + Must be less than [HEADER_SIZE - 76] to fit in + the reserved part of the header. + + 20 - 23: cluster bits + Number of bits that are used for addressing an + offset within a cluster (1 << cluster_bits is + the cluster size). Must not be less than 9 + (i.e. 512 byte clusters). + + Note: qemu as of today has an implementation + limit of 2 MB as the maximum cluster size and + won't be able to open images with larger cluster + sizes. + + 24 - 31: features + Bitmask of features. If a feature bit is set + but not recognized, the add-cow file should be + dropped. They are not used in now. + + Bits 0-63: Reserved (set to 0) + + 32 - 39: compatible features + Bitmask of compatible features. An implementation + can safely ignore any unknown bits that are set. + Bit 0: All allocated bit. If this bit is + set then backing file and COW bitmap + will not be used, and can read from + or write to image file directly. + + Bits 1-63: Reserved (set to 0) + + 40 - 43: HEADER_SIZE + The header field is variable-sized. This field + indicates how many bytes will be used to store + add-cow header. By default, it is maximum value + of 4096 and cluster size value. + + 44 - 59: backing file format + Format of backing file. It will be filled with + 0 if backing file name offset is 0. If backing + file name offset is non-empty, it must be + non-empty. It is coded in free-form ASCII, and + is not NUL-terminated. Zero padded on the right. + + 60 - 75: image file format + Format of image file. It must be non-empty. It + is coded in free-form ASCII, and is not + NUL-terminated. Zero padded on the right. + + 76 - [HEADER_SIZE - 1]: + It is used to make sure COW bitmap field starts + at the HEADER_SIZE byte, backing file name and + image file name will be stored here. The bytes + that are not pointing to backing file and image + file names must be set to 0. + +== COW bitmap == + +The "COW bitmap" field starts at offset HEADER_SIZE, stores a bitmap +related to backing file and image file. It is tracking whether the +cluster in image file is allocated or not. + +Each bit in the bitmap tracks one cluster's status. For example, if +cluster bit is 16, then each bit tracks one cluster, (1 << 16) = 65536 +bytes. The image file size is rounded up to cluster size (where any +bytes in the last cluster that do not fit in the image are ignored), +then if the number of clusters is not a multiple of 8, then remaining +bits in the bitmap will be set to 0. + +The size of bitmap is calculated according to virtual size of image +file, and the size of bitmap should be multiple of add-cow file's +cluster size, the bits not used will be set to 0. Within each byte, +the least significant bit covers the first cluster. Bit orders in one +byte look like: + +----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+ + | b7 | b6 | b5 | b4 | b3 | b2 | b1 | b0 | + +----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+ + +If the bit is 0, it indicates the cluster has not been allocated in +image file, data should be loaded from backing file while reading; if +the bit is 1, it indicates the related cluster has been dirty, should +be loaded from image file while reading. Writing to a cluster causes +the corresponding bit to be set to 1. If there is no backing file, or +if the image file is larger than the backing file and the offset is +beyond the end of the backing file, then the data should be read as +all zero bytes instead. + +If image file is not an even multiple of cluster bytes, bits that +correspond to bytes beyond the image file size in add-cow must be written +as 0 and must be ignored when reading. + +Image file name and backing file name must NOT be the same, we prevent +this while creating add-cow files via qemu-img. If image file name and +backing file name are the same, the add-cow image must be treated as +invalid.