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authorUlises Mendez Martinez <umendez@google.com>2026-09-04 15:07:09 +0000
committerJosh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@kernel.org>2026-09-13 18:15:43 -0700
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treee6080164b2f4c4c419894bdb3ce4d956ca9a98c5 /Documentation/admin-guide/device-mapper/era.rst
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objtool: Validate disassembler headers in libopcodes probegrafted
commit 3f2de814c059 ("objtool: Fix libopcodes linking with static libraries") tested for libopcodes availability by linking a test snippet with a forward declaration of disassemble_init_for_target(). However, testing symbol linkage with an extern declaration only verifies the presence of the library (.so/.a) and bypasses checking for development headers (binutils-dev). On systems where libopcodes is present without development headers installed, the probe succeeds, enabling BUILD_DISAS. Subsequent compilation of objtool then fails: fatal error: 'bfd.h' file not found 113 | #include <bfd.h> Additionally, the probe invokes $(HOSTCC) without $(HOSTCFLAGS), ignoring any sysroot or include flags specified for the host compiler. Fix this by including <bfd.h> and <dis-asm.h> directly in the test snippet, passing $(HOSTCFLAGS) so host compiler options are respected, and defining PACKAGE="objtool" to satisfy the configuration check in <bfd.h>. Fixes: 3f2de814c059 ("objtool: Fix libopcodes linking with static libraries") Fixes: 436326bc525d ("objtool: fix build failure due to missing libopcodes check") Reported-by: Alice Ryhl <aliceryhl@google.com> Assisted-by: Antigravity:Gemini-Next Signed-off-by: Ulises Mendez Martinez <umendez@google.com> Link: https://patch.msgid.link/20260904150710.2997558-1-umendez@google.com Signed-off-by: Josh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@kernel.org>
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+======
+dm-era
+======
+
+Introduction
+============
+
+dm-era is a target that behaves similar to the linear target. In
+addition it keeps track of which blocks were written within a user
+defined period of time called an 'era'. Each era target instance
+maintains the current era as a monotonically increasing 32-bit
+counter.
+
+Use cases include tracking changed blocks for backup software, and
+partially invalidating the contents of a cache to restore cache
+coherency after rolling back a vendor snapshot.
+
+Constructor
+===========
+
+era <metadata dev> <origin dev> <block size>
+
+ ================ ======================================================
+ metadata dev fast device holding the persistent metadata
+ origin dev device holding data blocks that may change
+ block size block size of origin data device, granularity that is
+ tracked by the target
+ ================ ======================================================
+
+Messages
+========
+
+None of the dm messages take any arguments.
+
+checkpoint
+----------
+
+Possibly move to a new era. You shouldn't assume the era has
+incremented. After sending this message, you should check the
+current era via the status line.
+
+take_metadata_snap
+------------------
+
+Create a clone of the metadata, to allow a userland process to read it.
+
+drop_metadata_snap
+------------------
+
+Drop the metadata snapshot.
+
+Status
+======
+
+<metadata block size> <#used metadata blocks>/<#total metadata blocks>
+<current era> <held metadata root | '-'>
+
+========================= ==============================================
+metadata block size Fixed block size for each metadata block in
+ sectors
+#used metadata blocks Number of metadata blocks used
+#total metadata blocks Total number of metadata blocks
+current era The current era
+held metadata root The location, in blocks, of the metadata root
+ that has been 'held' for userspace read
+ access. '-' indicates there is no held root
+========================= ==============================================
+
+Detailed use case
+=================
+
+The scenario of invalidating a cache when rolling back a vendor
+snapshot was the primary use case when developing this target:
+
+Taking a vendor snapshot
+------------------------
+
+- Send a checkpoint message to the era target
+- Make a note of the current era in its status line
+- Take vendor snapshot (the era and snapshot should be forever
+ associated now).
+
+Rolling back to an vendor snapshot
+----------------------------------
+
+- Cache enters passthrough mode (see: dm-cache's docs in cache.txt)
+- Rollback vendor storage
+- Take metadata snapshot
+- Ascertain which blocks have been written since the snapshot was taken
+ by checking each block's era
+- Invalidate those blocks in the caching software
+- Cache returns to writeback/writethrough mode
+
+Memory usage
+============
+
+The target uses a bitset to record writes in the current era. It also
+has a spare bitset ready for switching over to a new era. Other than
+that it uses a few 4k blocks for updating metadata::
+
+ (4 * nr_blocks) bytes + buffers
+
+Resilience
+==========
+
+Metadata is updated on disk before a write to a previously unwritten
+block is performed. As such dm-era should not be effected by a hard
+crash such as power failure.
+
+Userland tools
+==============
+
+Userland tools are found in the increasingly poorly named
+thin-provisioning-tools project:
+
+ https://github.com/jthornber/thin-provisioning-tools