From a700f2d8e79ff80041078f160fe1edccf89b0c66 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: =?UTF-8?q?Andr=C3=A9=20Fabian=20Silva=20Delgado?= Date: Wed, 23 Sep 2015 12:33:14 -0300 Subject: Linux-libre 4.2.1-gnu --- Documentation/filesystems/aufs/design/08shwh.txt | 52 ++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 52 insertions(+) create mode 100644 Documentation/filesystems/aufs/design/08shwh.txt (limited to 'Documentation/filesystems/aufs/design/08shwh.txt') diff --git a/Documentation/filesystems/aufs/design/08shwh.txt b/Documentation/filesystems/aufs/design/08shwh.txt new file mode 100644 index 000000000..a97a7987b --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/filesystems/aufs/design/08shwh.txt @@ -0,0 +1,52 @@ + +# Copyright (C) 2005-2015 Junjiro R. Okajima +# +# This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify +# it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by +# the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or +# (at your option) any later version. +# +# This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, +# but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of +# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the +# GNU General Public License for more details. +# +# You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License +# along with this program. If not, see . + +Show Whiteout Mode (shwh) +---------------------------------------------------------------------- +Generally aufs hides the name of whiteouts. But in some cases, to show +them is very useful for users. For instance, creating a new middle layer +(branch) by merging existing layers. + +(borrowing aufs1 HOW-TO from a user, Michael Towers) +When you have three branches, +- Bottom: 'system', squashfs (underlying base system), read-only +- Middle: 'mods', squashfs, read-only +- Top: 'overlay', ram (tmpfs), read-write + +The top layer is loaded at boot time and saved at shutdown, to preserve +the changes made to the system during the session. +When larger changes have been made, or smaller changes have accumulated, +the size of the saved top layer data grows. At this point, it would be +nice to be able to merge the two overlay branches ('mods' and 'overlay') +and rewrite the 'mods' squashfs, clearing the top layer and thus +restoring save and load speed. + +This merging is simplified by the use of another aufs mount, of just the +two overlay branches using the 'shwh' option. +# mount -t aufs -o ro,shwh,br:/livesys/overlay=ro+wh:/livesys/mods=rr+wh \ + aufs /livesys/merge_union + +A merged view of these two branches is then available at +/livesys/merge_union, and the new feature is that the whiteouts are +visible! +Note that in 'shwh' mode the aufs mount must be 'ro', which will disable +writing to all branches. Also the default mode for all branches is 'ro'. +It is now possible to save the combined contents of the two overlay +branches to a new squashfs, e.g.: +# mksquashfs /livesys/merge_union /path/to/newmods.squash + +This new squashfs archive can be stored on the boot device and the +initramfs will use it to replace the old one at the next boot. -- cgit v1.2.3