[PATCH] md: new sysfs interface for setting bits in the write-intent-bitmap

Add a new sysfs interface that allows the bitmap of an array to be dirtied.
The interface is write-only, and is used as follows:

echo "1000" > /sys/block/md2/md/bitmap

(dirty the bit for chunk 1000 [offset 0] in the in-memory and on-disk
bitmaps of array md2)

echo "1000-2000" > /sys/block/md1/md/bitmap

(dirty the bits for chunks 1000-2000 in md1's bitmap)

This is useful, for example, in cluster environments where you may need to
combine two disjoint bitmaps into one (following a server failure, after a
secondary server has taken over the array).  By combining the bitmaps on
the two servers, a full resync can be avoided (This was discussed on the
list back on March 18, 2005, "[PATCH 1/2] md bitmap bug fixes" thread).

Signed-off-by: Neil Brown <neilb@suse.de>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>

1 files changed, 2 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/include/linux/raid/bitmap.h b/include/linux/raid/bitmap.h
index 63df898fe2e9..84d887751855 100644
--- a/include/linux/raid/bitmap.h
+++ b/include/linux/raid/bitmap.h
@@ -265,6 +265,8 @@ int bitmap_update_sb(struct bitmap *bitmap);
 int  bitmap_setallbits(struct bitmap *bitmap);
 void bitmap_write_all(struct bitmap *bitmap);
 
+void bitmap_dirty_bits(struct bitmap *bitmap, unsigned long s, unsigned long e);
+
 /* these are exported */
 int bitmap_startwrite(struct bitmap *bitmap, sector_t offset,
                         unsigned long sectors, int behind);