NAME

nbdkit-file-plugin - nbdkit file plugin

SYNOPSIS

 nbdkit file [file=]FILENAME

DESCRIPTION

"nbdkit-file-plugin" is a file serving plugin for nbdkit(1).

It serves the named "FILENAME" over NBD. Local block devices (eg. /dev/sda) may also be served.

To concatenate multiple files, use nbdkit-split-plugin(1).

If you want to expose a file that resides on a file system known to have poor lseek(2) performance when searching for holes ("tmpfs" is known to be one such file system), you can use nbdkit-noextents-filter(1) to avoid the penalty of probing for holes.

PARAMETERS

[file=]FILENAME

Serve the file named "FILENAME". A local block device name can also be used here.

This parameter is required.

"file=" is a magic config key and may be omitted in most cases. See "Magic parameters" in nbdkit(1).

rdelay

wdelay

These plugin parameters have been moved to the nbdkit-delay-filter(1) filter. Modify the command line to add --filter=delay in order to use these parameters.

DUMP-PLUGIN OUTPUT

You can obtain extra information about how the file plugin was compiled by doing:

 nbdkit file --dump-plugin

Some of the fields which may appear are listed below. Note these are for information only and may be changed or removed at any time in the future.

"file_blksszget=yes"
"file_blkzeroout=yes": If both set, the plugin may be able to efficiently zero ranges of block devices, where the driver and block device itself supports this.
"file_falloc_fl_punch_hole=yes": If set, the plugin may be able to punch holes (make sparse) files and block devices.
"file_falloc_fl_zero_range=yes": If set, the plugin may be able to efficiently zero ranges of files and block devices.

DEBUG FLAG

-D file.zero=1: This enables very verbose debugging of the NBD zero request. This can be used to tell if the file plugin is able to zero ranges in the file or block device efficiently or not.

FILES

$plugindir/nbdkit-file-plugin.so: The plugin.
Use "nbdkit --dump-config" to find the location of $plugindir.

VERSION

"nbdkit-file-plugin" first appeared in nbdkit 1.0.

AUTHORS

Eric Blake

Nir Soffer

Richard W.M. Jones

COPYRIGHT

LICENSE

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
Neither the name of Red Hat nor the names of its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY RED HAT AND CONTRIBUTORS ''AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL RED HAT OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.