Re: [PATCH] xfsprogs: add fpunch command for hole punching via fallocate

[Dave Chinner <david@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Tue, Jan 18, 2011 at 08:12:03AM -0500, Christoph Hellwig wrote:
> On Tue, Jan 18, 2011 at 08:06:03AM -0500, Josef Bacik wrote:
> > Sounds good.  So which do we want, a new command or a new flag?  Thanks,
> 
> I'll wait for dave to chime in.  I think we should absolutely expose
> it as a fallocate flag, but if there's a good reason we can also expose
> it as a separate command.

My reasoning was that:

        a) it is consistent with other xfs_io allocation manipulation
           command structures such as resvsp/unresvsp
        b) "punch" is less to type than "fallocate -p"
        c) self documenting in scripts e.g. -c "punch 4k 4k" is much
           more obvious than -c "fallocate -p 4k 4k" and saves a man
           page lookup when reading the script.
        d) punch as a top level command will show up in the "xfs_io
           -c help", not require you to know it is a suboption of the
           "falloc" command to find out how to use it.
        e) the xfs_io command does not have to have the same name
           and structure as the underlying API that implements the
           functionality the commands execute.


Cheers,

Dave.
-- 
Dave Chinner
david@xxxxxxxxxxxxx