1 files changed, 55 insertions, 5 deletions

diff --git a/Documentation/device-mapper/snapshot.txt b/Documentation/device-mapper/snapshot.txt
index a5009c8300f3..e3a77b215135 100644
--- a/Documentation/device-mapper/snapshot.txt
+++ b/Documentation/device-mapper/snapshot.txt
@@ -8,13 +8,19 @@ 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.
+*) To merge a snapshot of a block device back into the snapshot's origin
+device.
 
+In the first two cases, dm copies only the chunks of data that get
+changed and uses a separate copy-on-write (COW) block device for
+storage.
 
-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.
+For snapshot merge the contents of the COW storage are merged back into
+the origin device.
 
 
-There are two dm targets available: snapshot and snapshot-origin.
+There are three dm targets available:
+snapshot, snapshot-origin, and snapshot-merge.
 
 *) snapshot-origin <origin>
 
@@ -40,8 +46,25 @@ 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
-========================
+* snapshot-merge <origin> <COW device> <persistent> <chunksize>
+
+takes the same table arguments as the snapshot target except it only
+works with persistent snapshots.  This target assumes the role of the
+"snapshot-origin" target and must not be loaded if the "snapshot-origin"
+is still present for <origin>.
+
+Creates a merging snapshot that takes control of the changed chunks
+stored in the <COW device> of an existing snapshot, through a handover
+procedure, and merges these chunks back into the <origin>.  Once merging
+has started (in the background) the <origin> may be opened and the merge
+will continue while I/O is flowing to it.  Changes to the <origin> are
+deferred until the merging snapshot's corresponding chunk(s) have been
+merged.  Once merging has started the snapshot device, associated with
+the "snapshot" target, will return -EIO when accessed.
+
+
+How snapshot 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;
@@ -72,3 +95,30 @@ 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
 
+
+How snapshot-merge is used by LVM2
+==================================
+A merging snapshot assumes the role of the "snapshot-origin" while
+merging.  As such the "snapshot-origin" is replaced with
+"snapshot-merge".  The "-real" device is not changed and the "-cow"
+device is renamed to <origin name>-cow to aid LVM2's cleanup of the
+merging snapshot after it completes.  The "snapshot" that hands over its
+COW device to the "snapshot-merge" is deactivated (unless using lvchange
+--refresh); but if it is left active it will simply return I/O errors.
+
+A snapshot will merge into its origin with the following command:
+
+lvconvert --merge volumeGroup/snap
+
+we'll now have this situation:
+
+# dmsetup table|grep volumeGroup
+
+volumeGroup-base-real: 0 2097152 linear 8:19 384
+volumeGroup-base-cow: 0 204800 linear 8:19 2097536
+volumeGroup-base: 0 2097152 snapshot-merge 254:11 254:12 P 16
+
+# 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 18:16 /dev/mapper/volumeGroup-base-cow
+brw-------  1 root root 254, 10 29 ago 18:16 /dev/mapper/volumeGroup-base