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, 88 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/Documentation/device-mapper/persistent-data.rst b/Documentation/device-mapper/persistent-data.rst
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+===============
+Persistent data
+===============
+
+Introduction
+============
+
+The more-sophisticated device-mapper targets require complex metadata
+that is managed in kernel.  In late 2010 we were seeing that various
+different targets were rolling their own data structures, for example:
+
+- Mikulas Patocka's multisnap implementation
+- Heinz Mauelshagen's thin provisioning target
+- Another btree-based caching target posted to dm-devel
+- Another multi-snapshot target based on a design of Daniel Phillips
+
+Maintaining these data structures takes a lot of work, so if possible
+we'd like to reduce the number.
+
+The persistent-data library is an attempt to provide a re-usable
+framework for people who want to store metadata in device-mapper
+targets.  It's currently used by the thin-provisioning target and an
+upcoming hierarchical storage target.
+
+Overview
+========
+
+The main documentation is in the header files which can all be found
+under drivers/md/persistent-data.
+
+The block manager
+-----------------
+
+dm-block-manager.[hc]
+
+This provides access to the data on disk in fixed sized-blocks.  There
+is a read/write locking interface to prevent concurrent accesses, and
+keep data that is being used in the cache.
+
+Clients of persistent-data are unlikely to use this directly.
+
+The transaction manager
+-----------------------
+
+dm-transaction-manager.[hc]
+
+This restricts access to blocks and enforces copy-on-write semantics.
+The only way you can get hold of a writable block through the
+transaction manager is by shadowing an existing block (ie. doing
+copy-on-write) or allocating a fresh one.  Shadowing is elided within
+the same transaction so performance is reasonable.  The commit method
+ensures that all data is flushed before it writes the superblock.
+On power failure your metadata will be as it was when last committed.
+
+The Space Maps
+--------------
+
+dm-space-map.h
+dm-space-map-metadata.[hc]
+dm-space-map-disk.[hc]
+
+On-disk data structures that keep track of reference counts of blocks.
+Also acts as the allocator of new blocks.  Currently two
+implementations: a simpler one for managing blocks on a different
+device (eg. thinly-provisioned data blocks); and one for managing
+the metadata space.  The latter is complicated by the need to store
+its own data within the space it's managing.
+
+The data structures
+-------------------
+
+dm-btree.[hc]
+dm-btree-remove.c
+dm-btree-spine.c
+dm-btree-internal.h
+
+Currently there is only one data structure, a hierarchical btree.
+There are plans to add more.  For example, something with an
+array-like interface would see a lot of use.
+
+The btree is 'hierarchical' in that you can define it to be composed
+of nested btrees, and take multiple keys.  For example, the
+thin-provisioning target uses a btree with two levels of nesting.
+The first maps a device id to a mapping tree, and that in turn maps a
+virtual block to a physical block.
+
+Values stored in the btrees can have arbitrary size.  Keys are always
+64bits, although nesting allows you to use multiple keys.