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From: Dongsu Park <dongsu.park@profitbricks.com>
To: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
Cc: Jens Axboe <axboe@kernel.dk>, Kent Overstreet <kmo@daterainc.com>,
	Ming Lin <mlin@minggr.net>,
	Dongsu Park <dongsu.park@profitbricks.com>,
	Jonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>,
	linux-doc@vger.kernel.org
Subject: [RFC PATCH 17/17] Documentation: update notes in biovecs about arbitrarily sized bios
Date: Mon, 22 Dec 2014 12:48:44 +0100	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <a116a7da8f881f69dfcc2e40bda91533f1bb3c57.1419241597.git.dongsu.park@profitbricks.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <4287748e7d1a0fce1c951567a7688821f1a21e5e.1419241597.git.dongsu.park@profitbricks.com>
In-Reply-To: <cover.1419241597.git.dongsu.park@profitbricks.com>

Update block/biovecs.txt so that it includes a note on what kind of
effects arbitrarily sized bios would bring to the block layer.
Also fix a trivial typo, bio_iter_iovec.

Signed-off-by: Dongsu Park <dongsu.park@profitbricks.com>
Cc: Kent Overstreet <kmo@daterainc.com>
Cc: Jonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>
Cc: linux-doc@vger.kernel.org
---
 Documentation/block/biovecs.txt | 17 ++++++++++++++++-
 1 file changed, 16 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/block/biovecs.txt b/Documentation/block/biovecs.txt
index 74a32ad..339045d 100644
--- a/Documentation/block/biovecs.txt
+++ b/Documentation/block/biovecs.txt
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ particular, presenting the illusion of partially completed biovecs so that
 normal code doesn't have to deal with bi_bvec_done.
 
  * Driver code should no longer refer to biovecs directly; we now have
-   bio_iovec() and bio_iovec_iter() macros that return literal struct biovecs,
+   bio_iovec() and bio_iter_iovec() macros that return literal struct biovecs,
    constructed from the raw biovecs but taking into account bi_bvec_done and
    bi_size.
 
@@ -109,3 +109,18 @@ Other implications:
    over all the biovecs in the new bio - which is silly as it's not needed.
 
    So, don't use bi_vcnt anymore.
+
+ * As of 3.18, block layer is written based on merging biovecs. Its goal is
+   to avoid having to split bios; upper layer code such as bio_add_page()
+   checks what the underlying device can handle, and tries to always create
+   bios that don't need to be split. However, this approach has been actually
+   cumbersome and error-prone. It eventually breaks down with stacked devices
+   and devices with dynamic limits, which then adds a lot of complexity.
+
+   So its new interface allows the block layer to split bios as needed, so we
+   could eliminate a lot of complexity elsewhere - particularly in stacked
+   drivers. Code that creates bios can then create whatever size bios are
+   convenient, and more importantly stacked drivers don't have to deal with
+   both their own bio size limitations and the limitations of the underlying
+   devices. Thus there's no need to define ->merge_bvec_fn() callbacks for
+   individual block drivers.
-- 
2.1.0


  reply	other threads:[~2014-12-22 11:52 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 43+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2014-12-22 11:48 [RFC PATCH 00/17] simplify block layer based on immutable biovecs Dongsu Park
2014-12-22 11:48 ` [RFC PATCH 01/17] block: make generic_make_request handle arbitrarily sized bios Dongsu Park
2014-12-22 11:48   ` [RFC PATCH 02/17] block: simplify bio_add_page() Dongsu Park
2014-12-22 11:48     ` [RFC PATCH 03/17] block: simplify issueing discard, write_same, zeroout Dongsu Park
2014-12-22 11:48       ` [RFC PATCH 04/17] bcache: clean up hacks around bio_split_pool Dongsu Park
2014-12-22 11:48         ` [RFC PATCH 05/17] btrfs: remove bio splitting and merge_bvec_fn() calls Dongsu Park
2014-12-22 11:48           ` [RFC PATCH 06/17] btrfs: make use of immutable biovecs Dongsu Park
2014-12-22 11:48             ` [RFC PATCH 07/17] block: replace sg_iovec with iov_iter Dongsu Park
2014-12-22 11:48               ` [RFC PATCH 08/17] block: refactor __bio_copy_iov() Dongsu Park
2014-12-22 11:48                 ` [RFC PATCH 09/17] block: refactor iov_count_pages() from bio_{copy,map}_user_iov() Dongsu Park
2014-12-22 11:48                   ` [RFC PATCH 10/17] block: refactor bio_get_user_pages() from __bio_map_user_iov() Dongsu Park
2014-12-22 11:48                     ` [RFC PATCH 11/17] block: allow __blk_queue_bounce() to handle bios larger than BIO_MAX_PAGES Dongsu Park
2014-12-22 11:48                       ` [RFC PATCH 12/17] md/raid10: make sync_request_write() call bio_copy_data() Dongsu Park
2014-12-22 11:48                         ` [RFC PATCH 13/17] md/raid5: get rid of bio_fits_rdev() Dongsu Park
2014-12-22 11:48                           ` [RFC PATCH 14/17] block: kill merge_bvec_fn() completely Dongsu Park
2014-12-22 11:48                             ` [RFC PATCH 15/17] fs: use helper bio_add_page() instead of open coding on bi_io_vec Dongsu Park
2014-12-22 11:48                               ` [RFC PATCH 16/17] fs: convert buffer head etc. to use immutable biovecs API Dongsu Park
2014-12-22 11:48                                 ` Dongsu Park [this message]
2014-12-23 10:52                                   ` [RFC PATCH 17/17] Documentation: update notes in biovecs about arbitrarily sized bios Christoph Hellwig
2014-12-23 12:34                                     ` Dongsu Park
2014-12-23 10:51                                 ` [RFC PATCH 16/17] fs: convert buffer head etc. to use immutable biovecs API Christoph Hellwig
2014-12-23 12:33                                   ` Dongsu Park
2014-12-22 15:22                               ` [RFC PATCH 15/17] fs: use helper bio_add_page() instead of open coding on bi_io_vec Dave Kleikamp
2014-12-22 15:22                                 ` Dave Kleikamp
2014-12-23 10:48                         ` [RFC PATCH 12/17] md/raid10: make sync_request_write() call bio_copy_data() Christoph Hellwig
2014-12-23 12:31                           ` Dongsu Park
2014-12-23 10:45                 ` [RFC PATCH 08/17] block: refactor __bio_copy_iov() Christoph Hellwig
2014-12-23 12:24                   ` Dongsu Park
2014-12-23 10:44               ` [RFC PATCH 07/17] block: replace sg_iovec with iov_iter Christoph Hellwig
2014-12-23 12:18                 ` Dongsu Park
2014-12-27 15:03                   ` Christoph Hellwig
2014-12-23 10:35             ` [RFC PATCH 06/17] btrfs: make use of immutable biovecs Christoph Hellwig
2014-12-23 12:09               ` Dongsu Park
     [not found]           ` <e4b7b017eaa81784889ebb2a4e6a7d4366adf13a.1419241597.git.dongsu.park@profit bricks.com>
2014-12-23 14:44             ` [RFC PATCH 05/17] btrfs: remove bio splitting and merge_bvec_fn() calls Chris Mason
2014-12-23 10:23       ` [RFC PATCH 03/17] block: simplify issueing discard, write_same, zeroout Christoph Hellwig
2014-12-23 10:22     ` [RFC PATCH 02/17] block: simplify bio_add_page() Christoph Hellwig
2014-12-23 11:46       ` Dongsu Park
2014-12-23 10:16   ` [RFC PATCH 01/17] block: make generic_make_request handle arbitrarily sized bios Christoph Hellwig
2014-12-23 11:41     ` Dongsu Park
2014-12-27 15:02       ` Christoph Hellwig
2014-12-23 19:14   ` Geoff Levand
2014-12-24 10:37     ` Dongsu Park
2014-12-25  6:09   ` Ming Lei

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