Async Discard Support Comes For Linux 4.7
With the core block I/O changes for the Linux 4.7 kernel merge window one feature stands out: async discard support. In the core block I/O area are also some fixes, cleaned up interfaces, some optimizations, and other changes.
Those interested in details about the async discard support for Linux 4.7 can see this linux-block discussion thread with the patches from Christoph Hellwig. About this __blkdev_issue_discard async version to queue a discard without waiting for I/O to complete, Hellwing wrote, "async discard support... Or rather nice async discard support :) I have patches pending for XFS and for the upcoming NVMe target driver to submit discard requests without waiting for them in caller." Maintainer Jens Axboe commented, "Good improvement, I've always hated the sync interface."
In addition to the core block I/O changes, Jens also sent in the block driver work for Linux 4.7 too. There are updates for NVMe, switching drivers to the new write back cache API, LightNVM updates, controller state management improvements, prep work for NVMe-over-fabrics, and various other fixes and improvements.
1 Comment
