This leads to the following effect:
./qemu-img create -f qcow2 base.qcow2 2M
./qemu-io -c "write -P 0x1 0 2M" base.qcow2
./qemu-img create -f qcow2 -b base.qcow2 mid.qcow2 1M
./qemu-img create -f qcow2 -b mid.qcow2 top.qcow2 2M
Region 1M..2M is shadowed by short middle image, so guest sees zeroes:
./qemu-io -c "read -P 0 1M 1M" top.qcow2
read 1048576/1048576 bytes at offset 1048576
1 MiB, 1 ops; 00.00 sec (22.795 GiB/sec and 23341.5807 ops/sec)
But after commit guest visible state is changed, which seems wrong for me:
./qemu-img commit top.qcow2 -b mid.qcow2
./qemu-io -c "read -P 0 1M 1M" mid.qcow2
Pattern verification failed at offset 1048576, 1048576 bytes
read 1048576/1048576 bytes at offset 1048576
1 MiB, 1 ops; 00.00 sec (4.981 GiB/sec and 5100.4794 ops/sec)