On Mon, Apr 4, 2022 at 11:25 AM Stefan Hajnoczi <stefa...@redhat.com> wrote:

> - The new API doesn't stop more I/O requests from being submitted, it
>   just blocks the current coroutine so request processing is deferred.
>

New I/O requests would not complete until the write-side critical section
ends. However they would still be accepted: from the point of view of the
guest, the "consumed" index of the virtio ring would move forward, unlike
bdrv_drained_begin/end().

- In other words, is_external is a flow control API whereas the new API
>   queues up request coroutines without notifying the caller.
>

Yes, I think this is the same I wrote above.

> - The new API still needs to be combined with bdrv_drained_begin/end()
>   to ensure in-flight requests are done.
>

I don't think so, because in-flight requests would take the lock for
reading. The write side would not start until those in-flight requests
release the lock.

- It's not obvious to me whether the new API obsoletes is_external. I think
> it probably doesn't.
>

I agree that it doesn't. This new lock is only protecting ->parents and
->children. bdrv_drained_begin()/end() remains necessary, for example, when
you need to send a request during the drained section. An example is
block_resize.

In addition, bdrv_drained_begin()/end() ensures that the callback of
blk_aio_*() functions has been invoked (see commit 46aaf2a566,
"block-backend: Decrease in_flight only after callback", 2018-09-25).  This
new lock would not ensure that.

As an aside, instead of is_external, QEMU could remove/add the ioeventfd
handler in the blk->dev_ops->drained_begin and blk->dev_ops->drained_end
callbacks respectively. But that's just a code cleanup.

Paolo

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