Merge branch 'szaydel/solaris-Wincompatible-pointer-types' of https://github.com...

[fio.git] / fio.1

diff --git a/fio.1 b/fio.1
index 733c7406b33f804bf520ed9face5c9eba8378055..a446aba549eb3834b202aefa21b1f5716f7141c6 100644 (file)
--- a/fio.1
+++ b/fio.1
@@ -68,12 +68,11 @@ available ioengines.
 Convert \fIjobfile\fR to a set of command\-line options.
 .TP
 .BI \-\-readonly
-Turn on safety read\-only checks, preventing writes. The \fB\-\-readonly\fR
+Turn on safety read\-only checks, preventing writes and trims. The \fB\-\-readonly\fR
 option is an extra safety guard to prevent users from accidentally starting
-a write workload when that is not desired. Fio will only write if
-`rw=write/randwrite/rw/randrw' is given. This extra safety net can be used
-as an extra precaution as \fB\-\-readonly\fR will also enable a write check in
-the I/O engine core to prevent writes due to unknown user space bug(s).
+a write or trim workload when that is not desired. Fio will only modify the
+device under test if `rw=write/randwrite/rw/randrw/trim/randtrim/trimwrite'
+is given. This safety net can be used as an extra precaution.
 .TP
 .BI \-\-eta \fR=\fPwhen
 Specifies when real\-time ETA estimate should be printed. \fIwhen\fR may
@@ -758,7 +757,7 @@ Sequential reads.
 Sequential writes.
 .TP
 .B trim
-Sequential trims (Linux block devices only).
+Sequential trims (Linux block devices and SCSI character devices only).
 .TP
 .B randread
 Random reads.
@@ -767,7 +766,7 @@ Random reads.
 Random writes.
 .TP
 .B randtrim
-Random trims (Linux block devices only).
+Random trims (Linux block devices and SCSI character devices only).
 .TP
 .B rw,readwrite
 Sequential mixed reads and writes.
@@ -1121,7 +1120,9 @@ at past I/O history. This means that some blocks may not be read or written,
 and that some blocks may be read/written more than once. If this option is
 used with \fBverify\fR and multiple blocksizes (via \fBbsrange\fR),
 only intact blocks are verified, i.e., partially\-overwritten blocks are
-ignored.
+ignored.  With an async I/O engine and an I/O depth > 1, it is possible for
+the same block to be overwritten, which can cause verification errors.  Either
+do not use norandommap in this case, or also use the lfsr random generator.
 .TP
 .BI softrandommap \fR=\fPbool
 See \fBnorandommap\fR. If fio runs with the random block map enabled and
@@ -1523,7 +1524,8 @@ SCSI generic sg v3 I/O. May either be synchronous using the SG_IO
 ioctl, or if the target is an sg character device we use
 \fBread\fR\|(2) and \fBwrite\fR\|(2) for asynchronous
 I/O. Requires \fBfilename\fR option to specify either block or
-character devices. The sg engine includes engine specific options.
+character devices. This engine supports trim operations. The
+sg engine includes engine specific options.
 .TP
 .B null
 Doesn't transfer any data, just pretends to. This is mainly used to
@@ -2371,6 +2373,11 @@ that the written data is also correctly read back. If the data direction
 given is a read or random read, fio will assume that it should verify a
 previously written file. If the data direction includes any form of write,
 the verify will be of the newly written data.
+.P
+To avoid false verification errors, do not use the norandommap option when
+verifying data with async I/O engines and I/O depths > 1.  Or use the
+norandommap and the lfsr random generator together to avoid writing to the
+same offset with muliple outstanding I/Os.
 .RE
 .TP
 .BI verify_offset \fR=\fPint