Re: [Qemu-devel] [PATCH v2 2/6] block: Fix dirty bitmap in bdrv_co_discard

[John Snow]

On 05/06/2015 12:52 AM, Fam Zheng wrote:
> Unsetting dirty globally with discard is not very correct. The discard may 
> zero
> out sectors (depending on can_write_zeroes_with_unmap), we should replicate
> this change to destinition side to make sure that the guest sees the same 
> data.
> 
> Calling bdrv_reset_dirty also troubles mirror job because the hbitmap iterator
> doesn't expect unsetting of bits after current position.
> 
> So let's do it the opposite way which fixes both problems: set the dirty bits
> if we are to discard it.
> 
> Reported-by: address@hidden
> Signed-off-by: Fam Zheng <address@hidden>
> ---
>  block/io.c | 4 ++--
>  1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
> 
> diff --git a/block/io.c b/block/io.c
> index 1ce62c4..809688b 100644
> --- a/block/io.c
> +++ b/block/io.c
> @@ -2343,8 +2343,6 @@ int coroutine_fn bdrv_co_discard(BlockDriverState *bs, 
> int64_t sector_num,
>          return -EROFS;
>      }
>  
> -    bdrv_reset_dirty(bs, sector_num, nb_sectors);
> -
>      /* Do nothing if disabled.  */
>      if (!(bs->open_flags & BDRV_O_UNMAP)) {
>          return 0;
> @@ -2354,6 +2352,8 @@ int coroutine_fn bdrv_co_discard(BlockDriverState *bs, 
> int64_t sector_num,
>          return 0;
>      }
>  
> +    bdrv_set_dirty(bs, sector_num, nb_sectors);
> +
>      max_discard = MIN_NON_ZERO(bs->bl.max_discard, BDRV_REQUEST_MAX_SECTORS);
>      while (nb_sectors > 0) {
>          int ret;
> 

For the clueless: will discard *always* change the data, or is it
possible that some implementations might do nothing?

Is it possible to just omit a set/reset from this function altogether
and let whatever function that is called later (e.g. a write_zeroes
call) worry about setting the dirty bits?

What I wonder about: Is it possible that we are needlessly marking data
as dirty when it has not changed?