Re: [Qemu-devel] [PATCH v2 16/32] qcow2: Update l2_allocate() to support L2 slices

[Alberto Garcia]

On Wed 17 Jan 2018 05:06:04 PM CET, Eric Blake wrote:
>>>>      /* allocate a new entry in the l2 cache */
>>>>  
>>>> +    slice_size = s->l2_slice_size * sizeof(uint64_t);
>>>
>>> Would this read any better if the earlier patch named it
>>> s->l2_slice_entries?
>> 
>> I had doubts with this. Like you, when I see size I tend to think about
>> bytes. However both s->l1_size and s->l2_size indicate entries, and the
>> documentation of the qcow2 format even describes the header field like
>> this:
>> 
>>          36 - 39:   l1_size
>>                     Number of entries in the active L1 table
>
> We're free to rename the field in the qcow2 format specification if it
> makes things easier to understand.  If l1_entries reads better than
> l1_size, maybe it's worth doing.

In my opinion it reads much better. We mix both kinds of meanings in the
BDRVQcow2State structure already, there's for example cluster_size
(bytes), and refcount_table_size (entries). With the latter we actually
have the exact same problem we're discussing here:

    refcount_table_size2 = s->refcount_table_size * sizeof(uint64_t);
    s->refcount_table = g_try_malloc(refcount_table_size2);

So yeah, we can change those variables but it won't be a small patch. I
can do that if everyone thinks that it's a good idea.

Berto