Documentation/device-mapper/dm-bow.txt

dm_bow (backup on write)
========================

dm_bow is a device mapper driver that uses the free space on a device to back up
data that is overwritten. The changes can then be committed by a simple state
change, or rolled back by removing the dm_bow device and running a command line
utility over the underlying device.

dm_bow has three states, set by writing ‘1’ or ‘2’ to /sys/block/dm-?/bow/state.
It is only possible to go from state 0 (initial state) to state 1, and then from
state 1 to state 2.

State 0: dm_bow collects all trims to the device and assumes that these mark
free space on the overlying file system that can be safely used. Typically the
mount code would create the dm_bow device, mount the file system, call the
FITRIM ioctl on the file system then switch to state 1. These trims are not
propagated to the underlying device.

State 1: All writes to the device cause the underlying data to be backed up to
the free (trimmed) area as needed in such a way as they can be restored.
However, the writes, with one exception, then happen exactly as they would
without dm_bow, so the device is always in a good final state. The exception is
that sector 0 is used to keep a log of the latest changes, both to indicate that
we are in this state and to allow rollback. See below for all details. If there
isn't enough free space, writes are failed with -ENOSPC.

State 2: The transition to state 2 triggers replacing the special sector 0 with
the normal sector 0, and the freeing of all state information. dm_bow then
becomes a pass-through driver, allowing the device to continue to be used with
minimal performance impact.

Usage
=====
dm-bow takes one command line parameter, the name of the underlying device.

dm-bow will typically be used in the following way. dm-bow will be loaded with a
suitable underlying device and the resultant device will be mounted. A file
system trim will be issued via the FITRIM ioctl, then the device will be
switched to state 1. The file system will now be used as normal. At some point,
the changes can either be committed by switching to state 2, or rolled back by
unmounting the file system, removing the dm-bow device and running the command
line utility. Note that rebooting the device will be equivalent to unmounting
and removing, but the command line utility must still be run

Details of operation in state 1
===============================

dm_bow maintains a type for all sectors. A sector can be any of:

SECTOR0
SECTOR0_CURRENT
UNCHANGED
FREE
CHANGED
BACKUP

SECTOR0 is the first sector on the device, and is used to hold the log of
changes. This is the one exception.

SECTOR0_CURRENT is a sector picked from the FREE sectors, and is where reads and
writes from the true sector zero are redirected to. Note that like any backup
sector, if the sector is written to directly, it must be moved again.

UNCHANGED means that the sector has not been changed since we entered state 1.
Thus if it is written to or trimmed, the contents must first be backed up.

FREE means that the sector was trimmed in state 0 and has not yet been written
to or used for backup. On being written to, a FREE sector is changed to CHANGED.

CHANGED means that the sector has been modified, and can be further modified
without further backup.

BACKUP means that this is a free sector being used as a backup. On being written
to, the contents must first be backed up again.

All backup operations are logged to the first sector. The log sector has the
format:
--------------------------------------------------------
| Magic | Count | Sequence | Log entry | Log entry | …
--------------------------------------------------------

Magic is a magic number. Count is the number of log entries. Sequence is 0
initially. A log entry is

-----------------------------------
| Source | Dest | Size | Checksum |
-----------------------------------

When SECTOR0 is full, the log sector is backed up and another empty log sector
created with sequence number one higher. The first entry in any log entry with
sequence > 0 therefore must be the log of the backing up of the previous log
sector. Note that sequence is not strictly needed, but is a useful sanity check
and potentially limits the time spent trying to restore a corrupted snapshot.

On entering state 1, dm_bow has a list of free sectors. All other sectors are
unchanged. Sector0_current is selected from the free sectors and the contents of
sector 0 are copied there. The sector 0 is backed up, which triggers the first
log entry to be written.