From owner-freebsd-geom@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Aug 28 16:37:11 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-geom@FreeBSD.org Delivered-To: freebsd-geom@FreeBSD.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D795616A4DD for ; Mon, 28 Aug 2006 16:37:11 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from xi@borderworlds.dk) Received: from ferengi.borderworlds.dk (ferengi.borderworlds.dk [80.166.152.7]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6C10143D70 for ; Mon, 28 Aug 2006 16:37:10 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from xi@borderworlds.dk) Received: from dominion.borderworlds.dk (dominion.borderworlds.dk [10.1.0.10]) by ferengi.borderworlds.dk (Postfix) with ESMTP id 022E1B972 for ; Mon, 28 Aug 2006 18:37:08 +0200 (CEST) Received: by dominion.borderworlds.dk (Postfix, from userid 2000) id 354648C8; Mon, 28 Aug 2006 18:37:08 +0200 (CEST) To: freebsd-geom@FreeBSD.org From: Christian Laursen Date: Mon, 28 Aug 2006 18:37:07 +0200 Message-ID: User-Agent: Gnus/5.11 (Gnus v5.11) Emacs/22.0.50 (berkeley-unix) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Cc: Subject: Geom class project idea - geom_cow X-BeenThere: freebsd-geom@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: GEOM-specific discussions and implementations List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 28 Aug 2006 16:37:11 -0000 I have an idea for a geom class that I think could be useful in a number of scenarios. The basic idea is that it takes two existing providers and uses the first one as a starting point and the other one to keep changes to the first one using copy-on-write. The second provider will need a bitmap to keep track of the blocks that have changed as well as at least as much space as the base provider. A number of the cases in which this class would prove useful are cases where you would otherwise choose unionfs. However, approaching this problem in geom seems simpler. (At least to me) I propose that this idea be added to and/or . Unfortunately I don't have the time nor much kernel hacking experience to do this myself at this point. -- Christian Laursen