exofs: Documentation

Added some documentation in exofs.txt, as well as a BUGS file.

For further reading, operation instructions, example scripts
and up to date infomation and code please see:
http://open-osd.org

Signed-off-by: Boaz Harrosh <bharrosh@panasas.com>

1 files changed, 176 insertions, 0 deletions

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+===============================================================================
+WHAT IS EXOFS?
+===============================================================================
+
+exofs is a file system that uses an OSD and exports the API of a normal Linux
+file system. Users access exofs like any other local file system, and exofs
+will in turn issue commands to the local OSD initiator.
+
+OSD is a new T10 command set that views storage devices not as a large/flat
+array of sectors but as a container of objects, each having a length, quota,
+time attributes and more. Each object is addressed by a 64bit ID, and is
+contained in a 64bit ID partition. Each object has associated attributes
+attached to it, which are integral part of the object and provide metadata about
+the object. The standard defines some common obligatory attributes, but user
+attributes can be added as needed.
+
+===============================================================================
+ENVIRONMENT
+===============================================================================
+
+To use this file system, you need to have an object store to run it on.  You
+may download a target from:
+http://open-osd.org
+
+See Documentation/scsi/osd.txt for how to setup a working osd environment.
+
+===============================================================================
+USAGE
+===============================================================================
+
+1. Download and compile exofs and open-osd initiator:
+  You need an external Kernel source tree or kernel headers from your
+  distribution. (anything based on 2.6.26 or later).
+
+  a. download open-osd including exofs source using:
+     [parent-directory]$ git clone git://git.open-osd.org/open-osd.git
+
+  b. Build the library module like this:
+     [parent-directory]$ make -C KSRC=$(KER_DIR) open-osd
+
+     This will build both the open-osd initiator as well as the exofs kernel
+     module. Use whatever parameters you compiled your Kernel with and
+     $(KER_DIR) above pointing to the Kernel you compile against. See the file
+     open-osd/top-level-Makefile for an example.
+
+2. Get the OSD initiator and target set up properly, and login to the target.
+  See Documentation/scsi/osd.txt for farther instructions. Also see ./do-osd
+  for example script that does all these steps.
+
+3. Insmod the exofs.ko module:
+   [exofs]$ insmod exofs.ko
+
+4. Make sure the directory where you want to mount exists. If not, create it.
+   (For example, mkdir /mnt/exofs)
+
+5. At first run you will need to invoke the mkfs.exofs application
+
+   As an example, this will create the file system on:
+   /dev/osd0 partition ID 65536
+
+   mkfs.exofs --pid=65536 --format /dev/osd0
+
+   The --format is optional if not specified no OSD_FORMAT will be
+   preformed and a clean file system will be created in the specified pid,
+   in the available space of the target. (Use --format=size_in_meg to limit
+   the total LUN space available)
+
+   If pid already exist it will be deleted and a new one will be created in it's
+   place. Be careful.
+
+   An exofs lives inside a single OSD partition. You can create multiple exofs
+   filesystems on the same device using multiple pids.
+
+   (run mkfs.exofs without any parameters for usage help message)
+
+6. Mount the file system.
+
+   For example, to mount /dev/osd0, partition ID 0x10000 on /mnt/exofs:
+
+	mount -t exofs -o pid=65536 /dev/osd0 /mnt/exofs/
+
+7. For reference (See do-exofs example script):
+	do-exofs start - an example of how to perform the above steps.
+	do-exofs stop -  an example of how to unmount the file system.
+	do-exofs format - an example of how to format and mkfs a new exofs.
+
+8. Extra compilation flags (uncomment in fs/exofs/Kbuild):
+	CONFIG_EXOFS_DEBUG - for debug messages and extra checks.
+
+===============================================================================
+exofs mount options
+===============================================================================
+Similar to any mount command:
+	mount -t exofs -o exofs_options /dev/osdX mount_exofs_directory
+
+Where:
+    -t exofs: specifies the exofs file system
+
+    /dev/osdX: X is a decimal number. /dev/osdX was created after a successful
+               login into an OSD target.
+
+    mount_exofs_directory: The directory to mount the file system on
+
+    exofs specific options: Options are separated by commas (,)
+		pid=<integer> - The partition number to mount/create as
+                                container of the filesystem.
+                                This option is mandatory
+                to=<integer>  - Timeout in ticks for a single command
+                                default is (60 * HZ) [for debugging only]
+
+===============================================================================
+DESIGN
+===============================================================================
+
+* The file system control block (AKA on-disk superblock) resides in an object
+  with a special ID (defined in common.h).
+  Information included in the file system control block is used to fill the
+  in-memory superblock structure at mount time. This object is created before
+  the file system is used by mkexofs.c It contains information such as:
+	- The file system's magic number
+	- The next inode number to be allocated
+
+* Each file resides in its own object and contains the data (and it will be
+  possible to extend the file over multiple objects, though this has not been
+  implemented yet).
+
+* A directory is treated as a file, and essentially contains a list of <file
+  name, inode #> pairs for files that are found in that directory. The object
+  IDs correspond to the files' inode numbers and will be allocated according to
+  a bitmap (stored in a separate object). Now they are allocated using a
+  counter.
+
+* Each file's control block (AKA on-disk inode) is stored in its object's
+  attributes. This applies to both regular files and other types (directories,
+  device files, symlinks, etc.).
+
+* Credentials are generated per object (inode and superblock) when they is
+  created in memory (read off disk or created). The credential works for all
+  operations and is used as long as the object remains in memory.
+
+* Async OSD operations are used whenever possible, but the target may execute
+  them out of order. The operations that concern us are create, delete,
+  readpage, writepage, update_inode, and truncate. The following pairs of
+  operations should execute in the order written, and we need to prevent them
+  from executing in reverse order:
+	- The following are handled with the OBJ_CREATED and OBJ_2BCREATED
+	  flags. OBJ_CREATED is set when we know the object exists on the OSD -
+	  in create's callback function, and when we successfully do a read_inode.
+	  OBJ_2BCREATED is set in the beginning of the create function, so we
+	  know that we should wait.
+		- create/delete: delete should wait until the object is created
+		  on the OSD.
+		- create/readpage: readpage should be able to return a page
+		  full of zeroes in this case. If there was a write already
+		  en-route (i.e. create, writepage, readpage) then the page
+		  would be locked, and so it would really be the same as
+		  create/writepage.
+		- create/writepage: if writepage is called for a sync write, it
+		  should wait until the object is created on the OSD.
+		  Otherwise, it should just return.
+		- create/truncate: truncate should wait until the object is
+		  created on the OSD.
+		- create/update_inode: update_inode should wait until the
+		  object is created on the OSD.
+	- Handled by VFS locks:
+		- readpage/delete: shouldn't happen because of page lock.
+		- writepage/delete: shouldn't happen because of page lock.
+		- readpage/writepage: shouldn't happen because of page lock.
+
+===============================================================================
+LICENSE/COPYRIGHT
+===============================================================================
+The exofs file system is based on ext2 v0.5b (distributed with the Linux kernel
+version 2.6.10).  All files include the original copyrights, and the license
+is GPL version 2 (only version 2, as is true for the Linux kernel).  The
+Linux kernel can be downloaded from www.kernel.org.