dm: add era target

dm-era is a target that behaves similar to the linear target.  In
addition it keeps track of which blocks were written within a user
defined period of time called an 'era'.  Each era target instance
maintains the current era as a monotonically increasing 32-bit
counter.

Use cases include tracking changed blocks for backup software, and
partially invalidating the contents of a cache to restore cache
coherency after rolling back a vendor snapshot.

dm-era is primarily expected to be paired with the dm-cache target.

Signed-off-by: Joe Thornber <ejt@redhat.com>
Signed-off-by: Mike Snitzer <snitzer@redhat.com>

Documentation/device-mapper/era.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,108 @@
+Introduction
+============
+
+dm-era is a target that behaves similar to the linear target.  In
+addition it keeps track of which blocks were written within a user
+defined period of time called an 'era'.  Each era target instance
+maintains the current era as a monotonically increasing 32-bit
+counter.
+
+Use cases include tracking changed blocks for backup software, and
+partially invalidating the contents of a cache to restore cache
+coherency after rolling back a vendor snapshot.
+
+Constructor
+===========
+
+ era <metadata dev> <origin dev> <block size>
+
+ metadata dev    : fast device holding the persistent metadata
+ origin dev	 : device holding data blocks that may change
+ block size      : block size of origin data device, granularity that is
+		     tracked by the target
+
+Messages
+========
+
+None of the dm messages take any arguments.
+
+checkpoint
+----------
+
+Possibly move to a new era.  You shouldn't assume the era has
+incremented.  After sending this message, you should check the
+current era via the status line.
+
+take_metadata_snap
+------------------
+
+Create a clone of the metadata, to allow a userland process to read it.
+
+drop_metadata_snap
+------------------
+
+Drop the metadata snapshot.
+
+Status
+======
+
+<metadata block size> <#used metadata blocks>/<#total metadata blocks>
+<current era> <held metadata root | '-'>
+
+metadata block size	 : Fixed block size for each metadata block in
+			     sectors
+#used metadata blocks	 : Number of metadata blocks used
+#total metadata blocks	 : Total number of metadata blocks
+current era		 : The current era
+held metadata root	 : The location, in blocks, of the metadata root
+			     that has been 'held' for userspace read
+			     access. '-' indicates there is no held root
+
+Detailed use case
+=================
+
+The scenario of invalidating a cache when rolling back a vendor
+snapshot was the primary use case when developing this target:
+
+Taking a vendor snapshot
+------------------------
+
+- Send a checkpoint message to the era target
+- Make a note of the current era in its status line
+- Take vendor snapshot (the era and snapshot should be forever
+  associated now).
+
+Rolling back to an vendor snapshot
+----------------------------------
+
+- Cache enters passthrough mode (see: dm-cache's docs in cache.txt)
+- Rollback vendor storage
+- Take metadata snapshot
+- Ascertain which blocks have been written since the snapshot was taken
+  by checking each block's era
+- Invalidate those blocks in the caching software
+- Cache returns to writeback/writethrough mode
+
+Memory usage
+============
+
+The target uses a bitset to record writes in the current era.  It also
+has a spare bitset ready for switching over to a new era.  Other than
+that it uses a few 4k blocks for updating metadata.
+
+   (4 * nr_blocks) bytes + buffers
+
+Resilience
+==========
+
+Metadata is updated on disk before a write to a previously unwritten
+block is performed.  As such dm-era should not be effected by a hard
+crash such as power failure.
+
+Userland tools
+==============
+
+Userland tools are found in the increasingly poorly named
+thin-provisioning-tools project:
+
+    https://github.com/jthornber/thin-provisioning-tools

drivers/md/Kconfig

@@ -285,6 +285,17 @@ config DM_CACHE_CLEANER
          A simple cache policy that writes back all data to the
          origin.  Used when decommissioning a dm-cache.
 
+config DM_ERA
+       tristate "Era target (EXPERIMENTAL)"
+       depends on BLK_DEV_DM
+       default n
+       select DM_PERSISTENT_DATA
+       select DM_BIO_PRISON
+       ---help---
+         dm-era tracks which parts of a block device are written to
+         over time.  Useful for maintaining cache coherency when using
+         vendor snapshots.
+
 config DM_MIRROR
        tristate "Mirror target"
        depends on BLK_DEV_DM

drivers/md/Makefile

@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ dm-thin-pool-y	+= dm-thin.o dm-thin-metadata.o
 dm-cache-y	+= dm-cache-target.o dm-cache-metadata.o dm-cache-policy.o
 dm-cache-mq-y   += dm-cache-policy-mq.o
 dm-cache-cleaner-y += dm-cache-policy-cleaner.o
+dm-era-y	+= dm-era-target.o
 md-mod-y	+= md.o bitmap.o
 raid456-y	+= raid5.o
 
@@ -53,6 +54,7 @@ obj-$(CONFIG_DM_VERITY)		+= dm-verity.o
 obj-$(CONFIG_DM_CACHE)		+= dm-cache.o
 obj-$(CONFIG_DM_CACHE_MQ)	+= dm-cache-mq.o
 obj-$(CONFIG_DM_CACHE_CLEANER)	+= dm-cache-cleaner.o
+obj-$(CONFIG_DM_ERA)		+= dm-era.o
 
 ifeq ($(CONFIG_DM_UEVENT),y)
 dm-mod-objs			+= dm-uevent.o