=head1 NAME

nbdkit-fua-filter - modify nbdkit flush and Forced Unit Access (FUA)

=head1 SYNOPSIS

 nbdkit --filter=fua plugin [fuamode=MODE] [plugin-args...]

=head1 DESCRIPTION

C<nbdkit-fua-filter> is a filter that intentionally modifies handling
of the S<“Forced Unit Access”> (FUA) flag across the NBD protocol.

This filter can be used to disable FUA and flush requests for speed
(although this is unsafe).  Also it can be used to test client or
server fallbacks, and for evaluating timing differences between proper
use of FUA compared to a full flush.

Note that by default, the NBD protocol does not guarantee that the use
of FUA from one connection will be visible from another connection
unless the server advertised NBD_FLAG_MULTI_CONN.  You may wish to
combine this filter with L<nbdkit-multi-conn-filter(1)> if you plan on
making multiple connections to the plugin.

=head1 PARAMETERS

The C<fuamode> parameter is optional and controls which mode the
filter will use.

=over 4

=item B<fuamode=discard>

(nbdkit E<ge> 1.22)

The filter will discard FUA and flush requests.

B<This mode is unsafe>: If the NBD disk contains a filesystem then you
will likely lose data in the event of a crash.  It should only be used
for ephemeral data which you can easily recreate, such as caches,
builds, test data, etc.

=item B<fuamode=pass>

(nbdkit E<ge> 1.22)

Pass through FUA and flush requests unchanged.  Turns the filter into
a no-op.

=item B<fuamode=none>

FUA support is not advertised to the client.  Clients will not be able
to issue FUA write requests, but can send flush commands if the plugin
supports it.

This is the default if the C<fuamode> parameter is not specified.

=item B<fuamode=emulate>

The filter will emulate FUA support using the plugin’s C<.flush>
callback, regardless of whether the plugin itself supports more
efficient FUA.  It refuses to load if the plugin does not support
flush.

=item B<fuamode=native>

The filter will advertise native FUA support to the client and earlier
filters in the chain.  This is useful for comparing optimizations of
FUA handling when splitting large requests into sub-requests.  It
refuses to load if the plugin’s C<.can_fua> callback returns
C<NBDKIT_FUA_NONE>.

=item B<fuamode=force>

The filter will request FUA on all write transactions, even when the
client did not request it (“write-through” mode).  In turn client
flush requests become no-ops.  It refuses to load if the plugin’s
C<.can_fua> callback returns C<NBDKIT_FUA_NONE>.

=back

=head1 EXAMPLES

=over 4

=item *

Serve the file F<disk.img> discarding all FUA and flush requests.
This can greatly improve performance, but you will likely lose data if
there is a crash, so it is not safe.

 nbdkit --filter=fua file disk.img fuamode=discard

=item *

Serve the file F<disk.img>, but force the client to submit explicit
flush requests instead of using C<NBD_CMD_FLAG_FUA>:

 nbdkit --filter=fua file disk.img

=item *

Observe that the blocksize filter optimizes its handling of the FUA
flag based on whether it knows nbdkit will be emulating FUA with a
flush, by comparing the log filter output on top of different fua
filter modes:

 nbdkit --filter=blocksize --filter=log --filter=fua file disk.img \
   maxlen=4k logfile=fua_emulated fuamode=emulate
 nbdkit --filter=blocksize --filter=log --filter=fua file disk.img \
   maxlen=4k logfile=fua_native fuamode=native

=item *

Serve the file F<disk.img> in write-through mode, where all writes
from the client are immediately flushed to disk as if the client had
always requested FUA:

 nbdkit --filter=fua file disk.img fuamode=force

=back

=head1 FILES

=over 4

=item F<$filterdir/nbdkit-fua-filter.so>

The filter.

Use C<nbdkit --dump-config> to find the location of C<$filterdir>.

=back

=head1 VERSION

C<nbdkit-fua-filter> first appeared in nbdkit 1.4.

=head1 SEE ALSO

L<nbdkit(1)>,
L<nbdkit-file-plugin(1)>,
L<nbdkit-filter(3)>,
L<nbdkit-blocksize-filter(1)>,
L<nbdkit-log-filter(1)>,
L<nbdkit-multi-conn-filter(1)>,
L<nbdkit-nocache-filter(1)>,
L<nbdkit-noextents-filter(1)>,
L<nbdkit-noparallel-filter(1)>,
L<nbdkit-nozero-filter(1)>.

=head1 AUTHORS

Eric Blake

=head1 COPYRIGHT

Copyright Red Hat
