Commit Graph

13 Commits

Author SHA1 Message Date
Max Reitz
7f75a07d50 docs/qcow2: Limit refcount_order to [0, 6]
Specify the upper limit of refcount_order to be 6 (that is,
refcount_bits = 64). Any larger value does not make much sense when all
offsets, sizes, cluster counts etc. "only" have a width of 64 bit as
well, and very large values would be very difficult to support.
Therefore, just cap it at the largest reasonable value.

Suggested-by: Eric Blake <eblake@redhat.com>
Signed-off-by: Max Reitz <mreitz@redhat.com>
Signed-off-by: Kevin Wolf <kwolf@redhat.com>
2014-10-23 15:34:02 +02:00
Max Reitz
4b318d6ca6 docs/qcow2: Correct refcount_block_entries
A refblock entry may have a different size than 16 bits, it may even be
smaller than a byte. Correct the refcount_block_entries calculation
accordingly.

Signed-off-by: Max Reitz <mreitz@redhat.com>
Signed-off-by: Kevin Wolf <kwolf@redhat.com>
2014-10-23 15:34:02 +02:00
Maria Kustova
8e436ec1f3 docs: Make the recommendation for the backing file name position a requirement
The current version of the qcow2 specification recommends to save the backing
file name in the end of the first cluster. It follows that the backing file
name can be saved somewhere in the image, but the first cluster, which
contradicts the current QEMU implementation.

The patch makes the backing file name required to be placed after the header
extensions in the first image cluster.

Signed-off-by: Maria Kustova <maria.k@catit.be>
Signed-off-by: Kevin Wolf <kwolf@redhat.com>
2014-08-15 15:07:13 +02:00
Maria Kustova
6815bce542 docs: Define refcount_bits value
The 'refcount_bits' term used in the description of refcount block entry is
not defined in the specification. The definition is added in the
'refcount_order' section where refcount_bits was used as 'width in bits'.

Signed-off-by: Maria Kustova <maria.k@catit.be>
Reviewed-by: Eric Blake <eblake@redhat.com>
Signed-off-by: Stefan Hajnoczi <stefanha@redhat.com>
2014-05-28 14:28:46 +02:00
Max Reitz
f252080453 qcow2: Alignment of snapshot table entries
The qcow2 specification does not explicitly state so far that every
snapshot table entry is aligned to 8 bytes. QEMU, in contrast, does this
alignment, thus it should be properly documented (which this patch
does).

Signed-off-by: Max Reitz <mreitz@redhat.com>
Signed-off-by: Kevin Wolf <kwolf@redhat.com>
2013-10-11 16:49:58 +02:00
Max Reitz
69c9872653 qcow2: Add corrupt bit
This adds an incompatible bit indicating corruption to qcow2. Any image
with this bit set may not be written to unless for repairing (and
subsequently clearing the bit if the repair has been successful).

Signed-off-by: Max Reitz <mreitz@redhat.com>
Signed-off-by: Kevin Wolf <kwolf@redhat.com>
2013-08-30 15:48:43 +02:00
Stefan Hajnoczi
dae8796d00 docs: add lazy refcounts bit to qcow2 specification
The lazy refcounts bit indicates that this image can take advantage of
the dirty bit and that refcount updates can be postponed.

Signed-off-by: Stefan Hajnoczi <stefanha@linux.vnet.ibm.com>
Signed-off-by: Kevin Wolf <kwolf@redhat.com>
2012-08-06 22:39:14 +02:00
Stefan Hajnoczi
0f6d767aa8 docs: add dirty bit to qcow2 specification
The dirty bit will make it possible to perform lazy refcount updates,
where the image file is not kept consistent all the time.  Upon opening
a dirty image file, it is necessary to perform a consistency check and
repair any incorrect refcounts.

Therefore the dirty bit must be an incompatible feature bit.  We don't
want old programs accessing a file with stale refcounts.

Signed-off-by: Stefan Hajnoczi <stefanha@linux.vnet.ibm.com>
Signed-off-by: Kevin Wolf <kwolf@redhat.com>
2012-08-06 22:39:14 +02:00
Zhi Yong Wu
bf3f363a5b docs: fix one issue in qcow2 specs
Signed-off-by: Zhi Yong Wu <wuzhy@linux.vnet.ibm.com>
Signed-off-by: Kevin Wolf <kwolf@redhat.com>
2012-05-02 18:39:39 +02:00
Kevin Wolf
4fabffc112 Specification for qcow2 version 3
This updates the qcow2 specification to cover version 3. It contains the
following changes:

- Added compatible/incompatible/auto-clear feature bits plus an optional
  feature name table to allow useful error messages even if an older
  version doesn't know some feature at all.

- Configurable refcount width. If you don't want to use internal
  snapshots, make refcounts one bit and save cache space and I/O.

- Zero cluster flags. This allows discard even with a backing file that
  doesn't contain zeros. It is also useful for copy-on-read/image
  streaming, as you'll want to keep sparseness without accessing the
  remote image for an unallocated cluster all the time.

- Fixed internal snapshot metadata to use 64 bit VM state size. You
  can't save a snapshot of a VM with >= 4 GB RAM today.

- Extended internal snapshot metadata to contain the disk size, so that
  resizing images that have snapshots can be allowed in the future.

Signed-off-by: Kevin Wolf <kwolf@redhat.com>
2012-04-20 15:57:27 +02:00
Kevin Wolf
c2c9a46609 qcow2: Allow >4 GB VM state
This is a compatible extension to the snapshot header format that allows
saving a 64 bit VM state size.

Signed-off-by: Kevin Wolf <kwolf@redhat.com>
2011-12-15 12:40:33 +01:00
Zhi Yong Wu
3789985f40 qcow2: fix some errors and typo in qcow2.txt
Signed-off-by: Zhi Yong Wu <wuzhy@linux.vnet.ibm.com>
Signed-off-by: Kevin Wolf <kwolf@redhat.com>
2011-10-28 19:25:49 +02:00
Kevin Wolf
03feae7305 Add qcow2 documentation
This adds a description of the qcow2 file format to the docs/ directory.
Besides documenting what's there, which is never wrong, the document should
provide a good basis for the discussion of format extensions (called "qcow3"
in previous discussions)

Signed-off-by: Kevin Wolf <kwolf@redhat.com>
Reviewed-by: Stefan Hajnoczi <stefanha@linux.vnet.ibm.com>
2011-03-16 09:56:18 +01:00