Merge tag 'docs-5.3' of git://git.lwn.net/linux

Pull Documentation updates from Jonathan Corbet:
 "It's been a relatively busy cycle for docs:

   - A fair pile of RST conversions, many from Mauro. These create more
     than the usual number of simple but annoying merge conflicts with
     other trees, unfortunately. He has a lot more of these waiting on
     the wings that, I think, will go to you directly later on.

   - A new document on how to use merges and rebases in kernel repos,
     and one on Spectre vulnerabilities.

   - Various improvements to the build system, including automatic
     markup of function() references because some people, for reasons I
     will never understand, were of the opinion that
     :c:func:``function()`` is unattractive and not fun to type.

   - We now recommend using sphinx 1.7, but still support back to 1.4.

   - Lots of smaller improvements, warning fixes, typo fixes, etc"

* tag 'docs-5.3' of git://git.lwn.net/linux: (129 commits)
  docs: automarkup.py: ignore exceptions when seeking for xrefs
  docs: Move binderfs to admin-guide
  Disable Sphinx SmartyPants in HTML output
  doc: RCU callback locks need only _bh, not necessarily _irq
  docs: format kernel-parameters -- as code
  Doc : doc-guide : Fix a typo
  platform: x86: get rid of a non-existent document
  Add the RCU docs to the core-api manual
  Documentation: RCU: Add TOC tree hooks
  Documentation: RCU: Rename txt files to rst
  Documentation: RCU: Convert RCU UP systems to reST
  Documentation: RCU: Convert RCU linked list to reST
  Documentation: RCU: Convert RCU basic concepts to reST
  docs: filesystems: Remove uneeded .rst extension on toctables
  scripts/sphinx-pre-install: fix out-of-tree build
  docs: zh_CN: submitting-drivers.rst: Remove a duplicated Documentation/
  Documentation: PGP: update for newer HW devices
  Documentation: Add section about CPU vulnerabilities for Spectre
  Documentation: platform: Delete x86-laptop-drivers.txt
  docs: Note that :c:func: should no longer be used
  ...

1 files changed, 116 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/Documentation/device-mapper/era.rst b/Documentation/device-mapper/era.rst
new file mode 100644
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+======
+dm-era
+======
+
+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