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Diffstat (limited to 'docs/specs/qcow2.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | docs/specs/qcow2.txt | 221 |
1 files changed, 220 insertions, 1 deletions
diff --git a/docs/specs/qcow2.txt b/docs/specs/qcow2.txt index f236d8c..80cdfd0 100644 --- a/docs/specs/qcow2.txt +++ b/docs/specs/qcow2.txt @@ -103,7 +103,18 @@ in the description of a field. write to an image with unknown auto-clear features if it clears the respective bits from this field first. - Bits 0-63: Reserved (set to 0) + Bit 0: Bitmaps extension bit + This bit indicates consistency for the bitmaps + extension data. + + It is an error if this bit is set without the + bitmaps extension present. + + If the bitmaps extension is present but this + bit is unset, the bitmaps extension data must be + considered inconsistent. + + Bits 1-63: Reserved (set to 0) 96 - 99: refcount_order Describes the width of a reference count block entry (width @@ -123,6 +134,7 @@ be stored. Each extension has a structure like the following: 0x00000000 - End of the header extension area 0xE2792ACA - Backing file format name 0x6803f857 - Feature name table + 0x23852875 - Bitmaps extension other - Unknown header extension, can be safely ignored @@ -166,6 +178,36 @@ the header extension data. Each entry look like this: terminated if it has full length) +== Bitmaps extension == + +The bitmaps extension is an optional header extension. It provides the ability +to store bitmaps related to a virtual disk. For now, there is only one bitmap +type: the dirty tracking bitmap, which tracks virtual disk changes from some +point in time. + +The data of the extension should be considered consistent only if the +corresponding auto-clear feature bit is set, see autoclear_features above. + +The fields of the bitmaps extension are: + + Byte 0 - 3: nb_bitmaps + The number of bitmaps contained in the image. Must be + greater than or equal to 1. + + Note: Qemu currently only supports up to 65535 bitmaps per + image. + + 4 - 7: Reserved, must be zero. + + 8 - 15: bitmap_directory_size + Size of the bitmap directory in bytes. It is the cumulative + size of all (nb_bitmaps) bitmap headers. + + 16 - 23: bitmap_directory_offset + Offset into the image file at which the bitmap directory + starts. Must be aligned to a cluster boundary. + + == Host cluster management == qcow2 manages the allocation of host clusters by maintaining a reference count @@ -360,3 +402,180 @@ Snapshot table entry: variable: Padding to round up the snapshot table entry size to the next multiple of 8. + + +== Bitmaps == + +As mentioned above, the bitmaps extension provides the ability to store bitmaps +related to a virtual disk. This section describes how these bitmaps are stored. + +All stored bitmaps are related to the virtual disk stored in the same image, so +each bitmap size is equal to the virtual disk size. + +Each bit of the bitmap is responsible for strictly defined range of the virtual +disk. For bit number bit_nr the corresponding range (in bytes) will be: + + [bit_nr * bitmap_granularity .. (bit_nr + 1) * bitmap_granularity - 1] + +Granularity is a property of the concrete bitmap, see below. + + +=== Bitmap directory === + +Each bitmap saved in the image is described in a bitmap directory entry. The +bitmap directory is a contiguous area in the image file, whose starting offset +and length are given by the header extension fields bitmap_directory_offset and +bitmap_directory_size. The entries of the bitmap directory have variable +length, depending on the lengths of the bitmap name and extra data. These +entries are also called bitmap headers. + +Structure of a bitmap directory entry: + + Byte 0 - 7: bitmap_table_offset + Offset into the image file at which the bitmap table + (described below) for the bitmap starts. Must be aligned to + a cluster boundary. + + 8 - 11: bitmap_table_size + Number of entries in the bitmap table of the bitmap. + + 12 - 15: flags + Bit + 0: in_use + The bitmap was not saved correctly and may be + inconsistent. + + 1: auto + The bitmap must reflect all changes of the virtual + disk by any application that would write to this qcow2 + file (including writes, snapshot switching, etc.). The + type of this bitmap must be 'dirty tracking bitmap'. + + 2: extra_data_compatible + This flags is meaningful when the extra data is + unknown to the software (currently any extra data is + unknown to Qemu). + If it is set, the bitmap may be used as expected, extra + data must be left as is. + If it is not set, the bitmap must not be used, but + both it and its extra data be left as is. + + Bits 3 - 31 are reserved and must be 0. + + 16: type + This field describes the sort of the bitmap. + Values: + 1: Dirty tracking bitmap + + Values 0, 2 - 255 are reserved. + + 17: granularity_bits + Granularity bits. Valid values: 0 - 63. + + Note: Qemu currently doesn't support granularity_bits + greater than 31. + + Granularity is calculated as + granularity = 1 << granularity_bits + + A bitmap's granularity is how many bytes of the image + accounts for one bit of the bitmap. + + 18 - 19: name_size + Size of the bitmap name. Must be non-zero. + + Note: Qemu currently doesn't support values greater than + 1023. + + 20 - 23: extra_data_size + Size of type-specific extra data. + + For now, as no extra data is defined, extra_data_size is + reserved and should be zero. If it is non-zero the + behavior is defined by extra_data_compatible flag. + + variable: extra_data + Extra data for the bitmap, occupying extra_data_size bytes. + Extra data must never contain references to clusters or in + some other way allocate additional clusters. + + variable: name + The name of the bitmap (not null terminated), occupying + name_size bytes. Must be unique among all bitmap names + within the bitmaps extension. + + variable: Padding to round up the bitmap directory entry size to the + next multiple of 8. All bytes of the padding must be zero. + + +=== Bitmap table === + +Each bitmap is stored using a one-level structure (as opposed to two-level +structures like for refcounts and guest clusters mapping) for the mapping of +bitmap data to host clusters. This structure is called the bitmap table. + +Each bitmap table has a variable size (stored in the bitmap directory entry) +and may use multiple clusters, however, it must be contiguous in the image +file. + +Structure of a bitmap table entry: + + Bit 0: Reserved and must be zero if bits 9 - 55 are non-zero. + If bits 9 - 55 are zero: + 0: Cluster should be read as all zeros. + 1: Cluster should be read as all ones. + + 1 - 8: Reserved and must be zero. + + 9 - 55: Bits 9 - 55 of the host cluster offset. Must be aligned to + a cluster boundary. If the offset is 0, the cluster is + unallocated; in that case, bit 0 determines how this + cluster should be treated during reads. + + 56 - 63: Reserved and must be zero. + + +=== Bitmap data === + +As noted above, bitmap data is stored in separate clusters, described by the +bitmap table. Given an offset (in bytes) into the bitmap data, the offset into +the image file can be obtained as follows: + + image_offset(bitmap_data_offset) = + bitmap_table[bitmap_data_offset / cluster_size] + + (bitmap_data_offset % cluster_size) + +This offset is not defined if bits 9 - 55 of bitmap table entry are zero (see +above). + +Given an offset byte_nr into the virtual disk and the bitmap's granularity, the +bit offset into the image file to the corresponding bit of the bitmap can be +calculated like this: + + bit_offset(byte_nr) = + image_offset(byte_nr / granularity / 8) * 8 + + (byte_nr / granularity) % 8 + +If the size of the bitmap data is not a multiple of the cluster size then the +last cluster of the bitmap data contains some unused tail bits. These bits must +be zero. + + +=== Dirty tracking bitmaps === + +Bitmaps with 'type' field equal to one are dirty tracking bitmaps. + +When the virtual disk is in use dirty tracking bitmap may be 'enabled' or +'disabled'. While the bitmap is 'enabled', all writes to the virtual disk +should be reflected in the bitmap. A set bit in the bitmap means that the +corresponding range of the virtual disk (see above) was written to while the +bitmap was 'enabled'. An unset bit means that this range was not written to. + +The software doesn't have to sync the bitmap in the image file with its +representation in RAM after each write. Flag 'in_use' should be set while the +bitmap is not synced. + +In the image file the 'enabled' state is reflected by the 'auto' flag. If this +flag is set, the software must consider the bitmap as 'enabled' and start +tracking virtual disk changes to this bitmap from the first write to the +virtual disk. If this flag is not set then the bitmap is disabled. |