add idl4k kernel firmware version 1.13.0.105

kernel/Documentation/device-mapper/delay.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
+dm-delay
+========
+
+Device-Mapper's "delay" target delays reads and/or writes
+and maps them to different devices.
+
+Parameters:
+    <device> <offset> <delay> [<write_device> <write_offset> <write_delay>]
+
+With separate write parameters, the first set is only used for reads.
+Delays are specified in milliseconds.
+
+Example scripts
+===============
+[[
+#!/bin/sh
+# Create device delaying rw operation for 500ms
+echo "0 `blockdev --getsize $1` delay $1 0 500" | dmsetup create delayed
+]]
+
+[[
+#!/bin/sh
+# Create device delaying only write operation for 500ms and
+# splitting reads and writes to different devices $1 $2
+echo "0 `blockdev --getsize $1` delay $1 0 0 $2 0 500" | dmsetup create delayed
+]]

kernel/Documentation/device-mapper/dm-crypt.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,52 @@
+dm-crypt
+=========
+
+Device-Mapper's "crypt" target provides transparent encryption of block devices
+using the kernel crypto API.
+
+Parameters: <cipher> <key> <iv_offset> <device path> <offset>
+
+<cipher>
+    Encryption cipher and an optional IV generation mode.
+    (In format cipher-chainmode-ivopts:ivmode).
+    Examples:
+       des
+       aes-cbc-essiv:sha256
+       twofish-ecb
+
+    /proc/crypto contains supported crypto modes
+
+<key>
+    Key used for encryption. It is encoded as a hexadecimal number.
+    You can only use key sizes that are valid for the selected cipher.
+
+<iv_offset>
+    The IV offset is a sector count that is added to the sector number
+    before creating the IV.
+
+<device path>
+    This is the device that is going to be used as backend and contains the
+    encrypted data.  You can specify it as a path like /dev/xxx or a device
+    number <major>:<minor>.
+
+<offset>
+    Starting sector within the device where the encrypted data begins.
+
+Example scripts
+===============
+LUKS (Linux Unified Key Setup) is now the preferred way to set up disk
+encryption with dm-crypt using the 'cryptsetup' utility, see
+http://luks.endorphin.org/
+
+[[
+#!/bin/sh
+# Create a crypt device using dmsetup
+dmsetup create crypt1 --table "0 `blockdev --getsize $1` crypt aes-cbc-essiv:sha256 babebabebabebabebabebabebabebabe 0 $1 0"
+]]
+
+[[
+#!/bin/sh
+# Create a crypt device using cryptsetup and LUKS header with default cipher
+cryptsetup luksFormat $1
+cryptsetup luksOpen $1 crypt1
+]]

kernel/Documentation/device-mapper/dm-io.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,75 @@
+dm-io
+=====
+
+Dm-io provides synchronous and asynchronous I/O services. There are three
+types of I/O services available, and each type has a sync and an async
+version.
+
+The user must set up an io_region structure to describe the desired location
+of the I/O. Each io_region indicates a block-device along with the starting
+sector and size of the region.
+
+   struct io_region {
+      struct block_device *bdev;
+      sector_t sector;
+      sector_t count;
+   };
+
+Dm-io can read from one io_region or write to one or more io_regions. Writes
+to multiple regions are specified by an array of io_region structures.
+
+The first I/O service type takes a list of memory pages as the data buffer for
+the I/O, along with an offset into the first page.
+
+   struct page_list {
+      struct page_list *next;
+      struct page *page;
+   };
+
+   int dm_io_sync(unsigned int num_regions, struct io_region *where, int rw,
+                  struct page_list *pl, unsigned int offset,
+                  unsigned long *error_bits);
+   int dm_io_async(unsigned int num_regions, struct io_region *where, int rw,
+                   struct page_list *pl, unsigned int offset,
+                   io_notify_fn fn, void *context);
+
+The second I/O service type takes an array of bio vectors as the data buffer
+for the I/O. This service can be handy if the caller has a pre-assembled bio,
+but wants to direct different portions of the bio to different devices.
+
+   int dm_io_sync_bvec(unsigned int num_regions, struct io_region *where,
+                       int rw, struct bio_vec *bvec,
+                       unsigned long *error_bits);
+   int dm_io_async_bvec(unsigned int num_regions, struct io_region *where,
+                        int rw, struct bio_vec *bvec,
+                        io_notify_fn fn, void *context);
+
+The third I/O service type takes a pointer to a vmalloc'd memory buffer as the
+data buffer for the I/O. This service can be handy if the caller needs to do
+I/O to a large region but doesn't want to allocate a large number of individual
+memory pages.
+
+   int dm_io_sync_vm(unsigned int num_regions, struct io_region *where, int rw,
+                     void *data, unsigned long *error_bits);
+   int dm_io_async_vm(unsigned int num_regions, struct io_region *where, int rw,
+                      void *data, io_notify_fn fn, void *context);
+
+Callers of the asynchronous I/O services must include the name of a completion
+callback routine and a pointer to some context data for the I/O.
+
+   typedef void (*io_notify_fn)(unsigned long error, void *context);
+
+The "error" parameter in this callback, as well as the "*error" parameter in
+all of the synchronous versions, is a bitset (instead of a simple error value).
+In the case of an write-I/O to multiple regions, this bitset allows dm-io to
+indicate success or failure on each individual region.
+
+Before using any of the dm-io services, the user should call dm_io_get()
+and specify the number of pages they expect to perform I/O on concurrently.
+Dm-io will attempt to resize its mempool to make sure enough pages are
+always available in order to avoid unnecessary waiting while performing I/O.
+
+When the user is finished using the dm-io services, they should call
+dm_io_put() and specify the same number of pages that were given on the
+dm_io_get() call.
+

kernel/Documentation/device-mapper/dm-log.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,54 @@
+Device-Mapper Logging
+=====================
+The device-mapper logging code is used by some of the device-mapper
+RAID targets to track regions of the disk that are not consistent.
+A region (or portion of the address space) of the disk may be
+inconsistent because a RAID stripe is currently being operated on or
+a machine died while the region was being altered.  In the case of
+mirrors, a region would be considered dirty/inconsistent while you
+are writing to it because the writes need to be replicated for all
+the legs of the mirror and may not reach the legs at the same time.
+Once all writes are complete, the region is considered clean again.
+
+There is a generic logging interface that the device-mapper RAID
+implementations use to perform logging operations (see
+dm_dirty_log_type in include/linux/dm-dirty-log.h).  Various different
+logging implementations are available and provide different
+capabilities.  The list includes:
+
+Type		Files
+====		=====
+disk		drivers/md/dm-log.c
+core		drivers/md/dm-log.c
+userspace	drivers/md/dm-log-userspace* include/linux/dm-log-userspace.h
+
+The "disk" log type
+-------------------
+This log implementation commits the log state to disk.  This way, the
+logging state survives reboots/crashes.
+
+The "core" log type
+-------------------
+This log implementation keeps the log state in memory.  The log state
+will not survive a reboot or crash, but there may be a small boost in
+performance.  This method can also be used if no storage device is
+available for storing log state.
+
+The "userspace" log type
+------------------------
+This log type simply provides a way to export the log API to userspace,
+so log implementations can be done there.  This is done by forwarding most
+logging requests to userspace, where a daemon receives and processes the
+request.
+
+The structure used for communication between kernel and userspace are
+located in include/linux/dm-log-userspace.h.  Due to the frequency,
+diversity, and 2-way communication nature of the exchanges between
+kernel and userspace, 'connector' is used as the interface for
+communication.
+
+There are currently two userspace log implementations that leverage this
+framework - "clustered_disk" and "clustered_core".  These implementations
+provide a cluster-coherent log for shared-storage.  Device-mapper mirroring
+can be used in a shared-storage environment when the cluster log implementations
+are employed.

kernel/Documentation/device-mapper/dm-queue-length.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,39 @@
+dm-queue-length
+===============
+
+dm-queue-length is a path selector module for device-mapper targets,
+which selects a path with the least number of in-flight I/Os.
+The path selector name is 'queue-length'.
+
+Table parameters for each path: [<repeat_count>]
+	<repeat_count>: The number of I/Os to dispatch using the selected
+			path before switching to the next path.
+			If not given, internal default is used. To check
+			the default value, see the activated table.
+
+Status for each path: <status> <fail-count> <in-flight>
+	<status>: 'A' if the path is active, 'F' if the path is failed.
+	<fail-count>: The number of path failures.
+	<in-flight>: The number of in-flight I/Os on the path.
+
+
+Algorithm
+=========
+
+dm-queue-length increments/decrements 'in-flight' when an I/O is
+dispatched/completed respectively.
+dm-queue-length selects a path with the minimum 'in-flight'.
+
+
+Examples
+========
+In case that 2 paths (sda and sdb) are used with repeat_count == 128.
+
+# echo "0 10 multipath 0 0 1 1 queue-length 0 2 1 8:0 128 8:16 128" \
+  dmsetup create test
+#
+# dmsetup table
+test: 0 10 multipath 0 0 1 1 queue-length 0 2 1 8:0 128 8:16 128
+#
+# dmsetup status
+test: 0 10 multipath 2 0 0 0 1 1 E 0 2 1 8:0 A 0 0 8:16 A 0 0

kernel/Documentation/device-mapper/dm-service-time.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,91 @@
+dm-service-time
+===============
+
+dm-service-time is a path selector module for device-mapper targets,
+which selects a path with the shortest estimated service time for
+the incoming I/O.
+
+The service time for each path is estimated by dividing the total size
+of in-flight I/Os on a path with the performance value of the path.
+The performance value is a relative throughput value among all paths
+in a path-group, and it can be specified as a table argument.
+
+The path selector name is 'service-time'.
+
+Table parameters for each path: [<repeat_count> [<relative_throughput>]]
+	<repeat_count>: The number of I/Os to dispatch using the selected
+			path before switching to the next path.
+			If not given, internal default is used.  To check
+			the default value, see the activated table.
+	<relative_throughput>: The relative throughput value of the path
+			among all paths in the path-group.
+			The valid range is 0-100.
+			If not given, minimum value '1' is used.
+			If '0' is given, the path isn't selected while
+			other paths having a positive value are available.
+
+Status for each path: <status> <fail-count> <in-flight-size> \
+		      <relative_throughput>
+	<status>: 'A' if the path is active, 'F' if the path is failed.
+	<fail-count>: The number of path failures.
+	<in-flight-size>: The size of in-flight I/Os on the path.
+	<relative_throughput>: The relative throughput value of the path
+			among all paths in the path-group.
+
+
+Algorithm
+=========
+
+dm-service-time adds the I/O size to 'in-flight-size' when the I/O is
+dispatched and substracts when completed.
+Basically, dm-service-time selects a path having minimum service time
+which is calculated by:
+
+	('in-flight-size' + 'size-of-incoming-io') / 'relative_throughput'
+
+However, some optimizations below are used to reduce the calculation
+as much as possible.
+
+	1. If the paths have the same 'relative_throughput', skip
+	   the division and just compare the 'in-flight-size'.
+
+	2. If the paths have the same 'in-flight-size', skip the division
+	   and just compare the 'relative_throughput'.
+
+	3. If some paths have non-zero 'relative_throughput' and others
+	   have zero 'relative_throughput', ignore those paths with zero
+	   'relative_throughput'.
+
+If such optimizations can't be applied, calculate service time, and
+compare service time.
+If calculated service time is equal, the path having maximum
+'relative_throughput' may be better.  So compare 'relative_throughput'
+then.
+
+
+Examples
+========
+In case that 2 paths (sda and sdb) are used with repeat_count == 128
+and sda has an average throughput 1GB/s and sdb has 4GB/s,
+'relative_throughput' value may be '1' for sda and '4' for sdb.
+
+# echo "0 10 multipath 0 0 1 1 service-time 0 2 2 8:0 128 1 8:16 128 4" \
+  dmsetup create test
+#
+# dmsetup table
+test: 0 10 multipath 0 0 1 1 service-time 0 2 2 8:0 128 1 8:16 128 4
+#
+# dmsetup status
+test: 0 10 multipath 2 0 0 0 1 1 E 0 2 2 8:0 A 0 0 1 8:16 A 0 0 4
+
+
+Or '2' for sda and '8' for sdb would be also true.
+
+# echo "0 10 multipath 0 0 1 1 service-time 0 2 2 8:0 128 2 8:16 128 8" \
+  dmsetup create test
+#
+# dmsetup table
+test: 0 10 multipath 0 0 1 1 service-time 0 2 2 8:0 128 2 8:16 128 8
+#
+# dmsetup status
+test: 0 10 multipath 2 0 0 0 1 1 E 0 2 2 8:0 A 0 0 2 8:16 A 0 0 8

kernel/Documentation/device-mapper/dm-uevent.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,97 @@
+The device-mapper uevent code adds the capability to device-mapper to create
+and send kobject uevents (uevents).  Previously device-mapper events were only
+available through the ioctl interface.  The advantage of the uevents interface
+is the event contains environment attributes providing increased context for
+the event avoiding the need to query the state of the device-mapper device after
+the event is received.
+
+There are two functions currently for device-mapper events.  The first function
+listed creates the event and the second function sends the event(s).
+
+void dm_path_uevent(enum dm_uevent_type event_type, struct dm_target *ti,
+                    const char *path, unsigned nr_valid_paths)
+
+void dm_send_uevents(struct list_head *events, struct kobject *kobj)
+
+
+The variables added to the uevent environment are:
+
+Variable Name: DM_TARGET
+Uevent Action(s): KOBJ_CHANGE
+Type: string
+Description:
+Value: Name of device-mapper target that generated the event.
+
+Variable Name: DM_ACTION
+Uevent Action(s): KOBJ_CHANGE
+Type: string
+Description:
+Value: Device-mapper specific action that caused the uevent action.
+	PATH_FAILED - A path has failed.
+	PATH_REINSTATED - A path has been reinstated.
+
+Variable Name: DM_SEQNUM
+Uevent Action(s): KOBJ_CHANGE
+Type: unsigned integer
+Description: A sequence number for this specific device-mapper device.
+Value: Valid unsigned integer range.
+
+Variable Name: DM_PATH
+Uevent Action(s): KOBJ_CHANGE
+Type: string
+Description: Major and minor number of the path device pertaining to this
+event.
+Value: Path name in the form of "Major:Minor"
+
+Variable Name: DM_NR_VALID_PATHS
+Uevent Action(s): KOBJ_CHANGE
+Type: unsigned integer
+Description:
+Value: Valid unsigned integer range.
+
+Variable Name: DM_NAME
+Uevent Action(s): KOBJ_CHANGE
+Type: string
+Description: Name of the device-mapper device.
+Value: Name
+
+Variable Name: DM_UUID
+Uevent Action(s): KOBJ_CHANGE
+Type: string
+Description: UUID of the device-mapper device.
+Value: UUID. (Empty string if there isn't one.)
+
+An example of the uevents generated as captured by udevmonitor is shown
+below.
+
+1.) Path failure.
+UEVENT[1192521009.711215] change@/block/dm-3
+ACTION=change
+DEVPATH=/block/dm-3
+SUBSYSTEM=block
+DM_TARGET=multipath
+DM_ACTION=PATH_FAILED
+DM_SEQNUM=1
+DM_PATH=8:32
+DM_NR_VALID_PATHS=0
+DM_NAME=mpath2
+DM_UUID=mpath-35333333000002328
+MINOR=3
+MAJOR=253
+SEQNUM=1130
+
+2.) Path reinstate.
+UEVENT[1192521132.989927] change@/block/dm-3
+ACTION=change
+DEVPATH=/block/dm-3
+SUBSYSTEM=block
+DM_TARGET=multipath
+DM_ACTION=PATH_REINSTATED
+DM_SEQNUM=2
+DM_PATH=8:32
+DM_NR_VALID_PATHS=1
+DM_NAME=mpath2
+DM_UUID=mpath-35333333000002328
+MINOR=3
+MAJOR=253
+SEQNUM=1131

kernel/Documentation/device-mapper/kcopyd.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,47 @@
+kcopyd
+======
+
+Kcopyd provides the ability to copy a range of sectors from one block-device
+to one or more other block-devices, with an asynchronous completion
+notification. It is used by dm-snapshot and dm-mirror.
+
+Users of kcopyd must first create a client and indicate how many memory pages
+to set aside for their copy jobs. This is done with a call to
+kcopyd_client_create().
+
+   int kcopyd_client_create(unsigned int num_pages,
+                            struct kcopyd_client **result);
+
+To start a copy job, the user must set up io_region structures to describe
+the source and destinations of the copy. Each io_region indicates a
+block-device along with the starting sector and size of the region. The source
+of the copy is given as one io_region structure, and the destinations of the
+copy are given as an array of io_region structures.
+
+   struct io_region {
+      struct block_device *bdev;
+      sector_t sector;
+      sector_t count;
+   };
+
+To start the copy, the user calls kcopyd_copy(), passing in the client
+pointer, pointers to the source and destination io_regions, the name of a
+completion callback routine, and a pointer to some context data for the copy.
+
+   int kcopyd_copy(struct kcopyd_client *kc, struct io_region *from,
+                   unsigned int num_dests, struct io_region *dests,
+                   unsigned int flags, kcopyd_notify_fn fn, void *context);
+
+   typedef void (*kcopyd_notify_fn)(int read_err, unsigned int write_err,
+				    void *context);
+
+When the copy completes, kcopyd will call the user's completion routine,
+passing back the user's context pointer. It will also indicate if a read or
+write error occurred during the copy.
+
+When a user is done with all their copy jobs, they should call
+kcopyd_client_destroy() to delete the kcopyd client, which will release the
+associated memory pages.
+
+   void kcopyd_client_destroy(struct kcopyd_client *kc);
+

kernel/Documentation/device-mapper/linear.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,61 @@
+dm-linear
+=========
+
+Device-Mapper's "linear" target maps a linear range of the Device-Mapper
+device onto a linear range of another device.  This is the basic building
+block of logical volume managers.
+
+Parameters: <dev path> <offset>
+    <dev path>: Full pathname to the underlying block-device, or a
+                "major:minor" device-number.
+    <offset>: Starting sector within the device.
+
+
+Example scripts
+===============
+[[
+#!/bin/sh
+# Create an identity mapping for a device
+echo "0 `blockdev --getsize $1` linear $1 0" | dmsetup create identity
+]]
+
+
+[[
+#!/bin/sh
+# Join 2 devices together
+size1=`blockdev --getsize $1`
+size2=`blockdev --getsize $2`
+echo "0 $size1 linear $1 0
+$size1 $size2 linear $2 0" | dmsetup create joined
+]]
+
+
+[[
+#!/usr/bin/perl -w
+# Split a device into 4M chunks and then join them together in reverse order.
+
+my $name = "reverse";
+my $extent_size = 4 * 1024 * 2;
+my $dev = $ARGV[0];
+my $table = "";
+my $count = 0;
+
+if (!defined($dev)) {
+        die("Please specify a device.\n");
+}
+
+my $dev_size = `blockdev --getsize $dev`;
+my $extents = int($dev_size / $extent_size) -
+              (($dev_size % $extent_size) ? 1 : 0);
+
+while ($extents > 0) {
+        my $this_start = $count * $extent_size;
+        $extents--;
+        $count++;
+        my $this_offset = $extents * $extent_size;
+
+        $table .= "$this_start $extent_size linear $dev $this_offset\n";
+}
+
+`echo \"$table\" | dmsetup create $name`;
+]]

kernel/Documentation/device-mapper/snapshot.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,74 @@
+Device-mapper snapshot support
+==============================
+
+Device-mapper allows you, without massive data copying:
+
+*) To create snapshots of any block device i.e. mountable, saved states of
+the block device which are also writable without interfering with the
+original content;
+*) To create device "forks", i.e. multiple different versions of the
+same data stream.
+
+
+In both cases, dm copies only the chunks of data that get changed and
+uses a separate copy-on-write (COW) block device for storage.
+
+
+There are two dm targets available: snapshot and snapshot-origin.
+
+*) snapshot-origin <origin>
+
+which will normally have one or more snapshots based on it.
+Reads will be mapped directly to the backing device. For each write, the
+original data will be saved in the <COW device> of each snapshot to keep
+its visible content unchanged, at least until the <COW device> fills up.
+
+
+*) snapshot <origin> <COW device> <persistent?> <chunksize>
+
+A snapshot of the <origin> block device is created. Changed chunks of
+<chunksize> sectors will be stored on the <COW device>.  Writes will
+only go to the <COW device>.  Reads will come from the <COW device> or
+from <origin> for unchanged data.  <COW device> will often be
+smaller than the origin and if it fills up the snapshot will become
+useless and be disabled, returning errors.  So it is important to monitor
+the amount of free space and expand the <COW device> before it fills up.
+
+<persistent?> is P (Persistent) or N (Not persistent - will not survive
+after reboot).
+The difference is that for transient snapshots less metadata must be
+saved on disk - they can be kept in memory by the kernel.
+
+
+How this is used by LVM2
+========================
+When you create the first LVM2 snapshot of a volume, four dm devices are used:
+
+1) a device containing the original mapping table of the source volume;
+2) a device used as the <COW device>;
+3) a "snapshot" device, combining #1 and #2, which is the visible snapshot
+   volume;
+4) the "original" volume (which uses the device number used by the original
+   source volume), whose table is replaced by a "snapshot-origin" mapping
+   from device #1.
+
+A fixed naming scheme is used, so with the following commands:
+
+lvcreate -L 1G -n base volumeGroup
+lvcreate -L 100M --snapshot -n snap volumeGroup/base
+
+we'll have this situation (with volumes in above order):
+
+# dmsetup table|grep volumeGroup
+
+volumeGroup-base-real: 0 2097152 linear 8:19 384
+volumeGroup-snap-cow: 0 204800 linear 8:19 2097536
+volumeGroup-snap: 0 2097152 snapshot 254:11 254:12 P 16
+volumeGroup-base: 0 2097152 snapshot-origin 254:11
+
+# ls -lL /dev/mapper/volumeGroup-*
+brw-------  1 root root 254, 11 29 ago 18:15 /dev/mapper/volumeGroup-base-real
+brw-------  1 root root 254, 12 29 ago 18:15 /dev/mapper/volumeGroup-snap-cow
+brw-------  1 root root 254, 13 29 ago 18:15 /dev/mapper/volumeGroup-snap
+brw-------  1 root root 254, 10 29 ago 18:14 /dev/mapper/volumeGroup-base
+

kernel/Documentation/device-mapper/striped.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,58 @@
+dm-stripe
+=========
+
+Device-Mapper's "striped" target is used to create a striped (i.e. RAID-0)
+device across one or more underlying devices. Data is written in "chunks",
+with consecutive chunks rotating among the underlying devices. This can
+potentially provide improved I/O throughput by utilizing several physical
+devices in parallel.
+
+Parameters: <num devs> <chunk size> [<dev path> <offset>]+
+    <num devs>: Number of underlying devices.
+    <chunk size>: Size of each chunk of data. Must be a power-of-2 and at
+                  least as large as the system's PAGE_SIZE.
+    <dev path>: Full pathname to the underlying block-device, or a
+                "major:minor" device-number.
+    <offset>: Starting sector within the device.
+
+One or more underlying devices can be specified. The striped device size must
+be a multiple of the chunk size and a multiple of the number of underlying
+devices.
+
+
+Example scripts
+===============
+
+[[
+#!/usr/bin/perl -w
+# Create a striped device across any number of underlying devices. The device
+# will be called "stripe_dev" and have a chunk-size of 128k.
+
+my $chunk_size = 128 * 2;
+my $dev_name = "stripe_dev";
+my $num_devs = @ARGV;
+my @devs = @ARGV;
+my ($min_dev_size, $stripe_dev_size, $i);
+
+if (!$num_devs) {
+        die("Specify at least one device\n");
+}
+
+$min_dev_size = `blockdev --getsize $devs[0]`;
+for ($i = 1; $i < $num_devs; $i++) {
+        my $this_size = `blockdev --getsize $devs[$i]`;
+        $min_dev_size = ($min_dev_size < $this_size) ?
+                        $min_dev_size : $this_size;
+}
+
+$stripe_dev_size = $min_dev_size * $num_devs;
+$stripe_dev_size -= $stripe_dev_size % ($chunk_size * $num_devs);
+
+$table = "0 $stripe_dev_size striped $num_devs $chunk_size";
+for ($i = 0; $i < $num_devs; $i++) {
+        $table .= " $devs[$i] 0";
+}
+
+`echo $table | dmsetup create $dev_name`;
+]]
+

kernel/Documentation/device-mapper/zero.txt

@@ -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.
+