Re: Features and bug fixes for Linux kernel 3.3

[Konrad Rzeszutek Wilk <konrad.wilk@oracle.com>]

On Mon, Jan 09, 2012 at 01:33:04PM -0500, Konrad Rzeszutek Wilk wrote:
> Hey,
> 
> Linux 3.3 merge window opened last week and today I've asked Linus
> to pulled some of the patches. This is what is going in through
> the Xen tree:
> 
>  - SysFS documentation updates. We are slowly updating them to make sure that the SysFS
>    entires are properly documented.
>  - Making the grant system able to use more fancier types of grants to speed-up
>    guest to guest exchange of data (sub-page and transitive grants).
>  - Updates in the backends to be able to export the Xen backends in an
>    Hardware Virtualized Management (HVM) guest. We usually export those backends in
>    the initial domain (dom0), but are moving slowly to make it possible to do it any guest
>    (PV or HVM). NOTE: Only the netback version is in. The blkback needs an
>    Ack from Jens Axboe and while I am sure he will provide it it might be past the
>    merge window time-frame.
>  - Better driver to deal with memory type ioctls calls. In the past we were doing
>    ioctls on /proc/xen/priv_cmd (yuck) and with this are moving to doing it in
>    /dev/xen/priv_cmd.
>  - Fix a security issues were the guest could try to send a nasty (out of band)
>    message and potentially cause mishap.
>  - Remove duplicate initialization fields in the backend drivers.
>  - Jeremy is now working for a fancy new startup so changing the MAINTAINERS file to
>    reflect that his contribution are done during his private time.
>  - Sensible config options. We had some that weren't all that good so adjusting
>    them properly.
>  - Bug-fixes, fixing a bug in xen-pciback with the "Ownership but beware" bug.

And in the Jens Axboe (block maintainer) we have patches to support the 'secure' DISCARD
operation for blkfront/blkback. It is TRIM/UNMAP with the option of securely erasing the media.