tree 888e0fd7248c9329fa1aa3981043a2dc2457d488
parent d628eaef310533767ce68664873869c2d7f78f09
author David Woodhouse <David.Woodhouse@intel.com> 1217955713 +0100
committer Jens Axboe <jens.axboe@oracle.com> 1223535361 +0200

Add 'discard' request handling

Some block devices benefit from a hint that they can forget the contents
of certain sectors. Add basic support for this to the block core, along
with a 'blkdev_issue_discard()' helper function which issues such
requests.

The caller doesn't get to provide an end_io functio, since
blkdev_issue_discard() will automatically split the request up into
multiple bios if appropriate. Neither does the function wait for
completion -- it's expected that callers won't care about when, or even
_if_, the request completes. It's only a hint to the device anyway. By
definition, the file system doesn't _care_ about these sectors any more.

[With feedback from OGAWA Hirofumi <hirofumi@mail.parknet.co.jp> and
Jens Axboe <jens.axboe@oracle.com]

Signed-off-by: David Woodhouse <David.Woodhouse@intel.com>
Signed-off-by: Jens Axboe <jens.axboe@oracle.com>