diff options
| author | Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org> | 2026-09-05 11:59:05 -0700 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org> | 2026-09-05 11:59:05 -0700 |
| commit | 9f0346dcbea363787186c94ef94dd01aaa215afa (patch) | |
| tree | b81c168f4d0dbe4c7f4750f4598d48a6deb72094 /Documentation/admin-guide/device-mapper/zero.rst | |
| download | linux-stable-9f0346dcbea363787186c94ef94dd01aaa215afa.tar.gz linux-stable-9f0346dcbea363787186c94ef94dd01aaa215afa.zip | |
Merge tag 'driver-core-7.3-rc2' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/driver-core/driver-coregrafted
Pull driver core fixes from Danilo Krummrich:
- Fix kernfs listxattr() not returning security xattr names (e.g.
SELinux labels) when the kernfs node has no allocated kernfs_iattrs
- Fix silent truncation of IRQ vector indices in the Rust PCI
abstractions
- Don't select OF from DRIVER_PE_KUNIT_TEST; skip the test when OF is
disabled instead of silently enabling extra kernel functionality
- Russ Weight is retiring from kernel development; update the Firmware
Loader sysfs contact to the driver-core mailing list, add a CREDITS
entry for Firmware Upload, and update MAINTAINERS accordingly
* tag 'driver-core-7.3-rc2' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/driver-core/driver-core:
MAINTAINERS: Remove Russ Weight from Firmware Loader
CREDITS: Add CREDITS entry for Firmware Upload
firmware_loader: Change contact for sysfs nodes
rust: pci: reject IRQ vector indices that do not fit in u32
kernfs: preserve security xattrs without allocating iattrs
drivers: base: test: DRIVER_PE_KUNIT_TEST should not select OF
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/admin-guide/device-mapper/zero.rst')
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/admin-guide/device-mapper/zero.rst | 37 |
1 files changed, 37 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/device-mapper/zero.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/device-mapper/zero.rst new file mode 100644 index 000000000..11fb5cf45 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/device-mapper/zero.rst @@ -0,0 +1,37 @@ +======= +dm-zero +======= + +Device-Mapper's "zero" target provides a block-device that always returns +zero'd data on reads and silently drops writes. This is similar behavior to +/dev/zero, but as a block-device instead of a character-device. + +Dm-zero has no target-specific parameters. + +One very interesting use of dm-zero is for creating "sparse" devices in +conjunction with dm-snapshot. A sparse device reports a device-size larger +than the amount of actual storage space available for that device. A user can +write data anywhere within the sparse device and read it back like a normal +device. Reads to previously unwritten areas will return a zero'd buffer. When +enough data has been written to fill up the actual storage space, the sparse +device is deactivated. This can be very useful for testing device and +filesystem limitations. + +To create a sparse device, start by creating a dm-zero device that's the +desired size of the sparse device. For this example, we'll assume a 10TB +sparse device:: + + TEN_TERABYTES=`expr 10 \* 1024 \* 1024 \* 1024 \* 2` # 10 TB in sectors + echo "0 $TEN_TERABYTES zero" | dmsetup create zero1 + +Then create a snapshot of the zero device, using any available block-device as +the COW device. The size of the COW device will determine the amount of real +space available to the sparse device. For this example, we'll assume /dev/sdb1 +is an available 10GB partition:: + + echo "0 $TEN_TERABYTES snapshot /dev/mapper/zero1 /dev/sdb1 p 128" | \ + dmsetup create sparse1 + +This will create a 10TB sparse device called /dev/mapper/sparse1 that has +10GB of actual storage space available. If more than 10GB of data is written +to this device, it will start returning I/O errors. |
