Merge tag 'libnvdimm-for-4.2' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/djbw/nvdimm

Pull libnvdimm subsystem from Dan Williams:
 "The libnvdimm sub-system introduces, in addition to the
  libnvdimm-core, 4 drivers / enabling modules:

  NFIT:
    Instantiates an "nvdimm bus" with the core and registers memory
    devices (NVDIMMs) enumerated by the ACPI 6.0 NFIT (NVDIMM Firmware
    Interface table).

    After registering NVDIMMs the NFIT driver then registers "region"
    devices.  A libnvdimm-region defines an access mode and the
    boundaries of persistent memory media.  A region may span multiple
    NVDIMMs that are interleaved by the hardware memory controller.  In
    turn, a libnvdimm-region can be carved into a "namespace" device and
    bound to the PMEM or BLK driver which will attach a Linux block
    device (disk) interface to the memory.

  PMEM:
    Initially merged in v4.1 this driver for contiguous spans of
    persistent memory address ranges is re-worked to drive
    PMEM-namespaces emitted by the libnvdimm-core.

    In this update the PMEM driver, on x86, gains the ability to assert
    that writes to persistent memory have been flushed all the way
    through the caches and buffers in the platform to persistent media.
    See memcpy_to_pmem() and wmb_pmem().

  BLK:
    This new driver enables access to persistent memory media through
    "Block Data Windows" as defined by the NFIT.  The primary difference
    of this driver to PMEM is that only a small window of persistent
    memory is mapped into system address space at any given point in
    time.

    Per-NVDIMM windows are reprogrammed at run time, per-I/O, to access
    different portions of the media.  BLK-mode, by definition, does not
    support DAX.

  BTT:
    This is a library, optionally consumed by either PMEM or BLK, that
    converts a byte-accessible namespace into a disk with atomic sector
    update semantics (prevents sector tearing on crash or power loss).

    The sinister aspect of sector tearing is that most applications do
    not know they have a atomic sector dependency.  At least today's
    disk's rarely ever tear sectors and if they do one almost certainly
    gets a CRC error on access.  NVDIMMs will always tear and always
    silently.  Until an application is audited to be robust in the
    presence of sector-tearing the usage of BTT is recommended.

  Thanks to: Ross Zwisler, Jeff Moyer, Vishal Verma, Christoph Hellwig,
  Ingo Molnar, Neil Brown, Boaz Harrosh, Robert Elliott, Matthew Wilcox,
  Andy Rudoff, Linda Knippers, Toshi Kani, Nicholas Moulin, Rafael
  Wysocki, and Bob Moore"

* tag 'libnvdimm-for-4.2' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/djbw/nvdimm: (33 commits)
  arch, x86: pmem api for ensuring durability of persistent memory updates
  libnvdimm: Add sysfs numa_node to NVDIMM devices
  libnvdimm: Set numa_node to NVDIMM devices
  acpi: Add acpi_map_pxm_to_online_node()
  libnvdimm, nfit: handle unarmed dimms, mark namespaces read-only
  pmem: flag pmem block devices as non-rotational
  libnvdimm: enable iostat
  pmem: make_request cleanups
  libnvdimm, pmem: fix up max_hw_sectors
  libnvdimm, blk: add support for blk integrity
  libnvdimm, btt: add support for blk integrity
  fs/block_dev.c: skip rw_page if bdev has integrity
  libnvdimm: Non-Volatile Devices
  tools/testing/nvdimm: libnvdimm unit test infrastructure
  libnvdimm, nfit, nd_blk: driver for BLK-mode access persistent memory
  nd_btt: atomic sector updates
  libnvdimm: infrastructure for btt devices
  libnvdimm: write blk label set
  libnvdimm: write pmem label set
  libnvdimm: blk labels and namespace instantiation
  ...

2 files changed, 1091 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/Documentation/nvdimm/btt.txt b/Documentation/nvdimm/btt.txt
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..b91443f577dc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/nvdimm/btt.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,283 @@
+BTT - Block Translation Table
+=============================
+
+
+1. Introduction
+---------------
+
+Persistent memory based storage is able to perform IO at byte (or more
+accurately, cache line) granularity. However, we often want to expose such
+storage as traditional block devices. The block drivers for persistent memory
+will do exactly this. However, they do not provide any atomicity guarantees.
+Traditional SSDs typically provide protection against torn sectors in hardware,
+using stored energy in capacitors to complete in-flight block writes, or perhaps
+in firmware. We don't have this luxury with persistent memory - if a write is in
+progress, and we experience a power failure, the block will contain a mix of old
+and new data. Applications may not be prepared to handle such a scenario.
+
+The Block Translation Table (BTT) provides atomic sector update semantics for
+persistent memory devices, so that applications that rely on sector writes not
+being torn can continue to do so. The BTT manifests itself as a stacked block
+device, and reserves a portion of the underlying storage for its metadata. At
+the heart of it, is an indirection table that re-maps all the blocks on the
+volume. It can be thought of as an extremely simple file system that only
+provides atomic sector updates.
+
+
+2. Static Layout
+----------------
+
+The underlying storage on which a BTT can be laid out is not limited in any way.
+The BTT, however, splits the available space into chunks of up to 512 GiB,
+called "Arenas".
+
+Each arena follows the same layout for its metadata, and all references in an
+arena are internal to it (with the exception of one field that points to the
+next arena). The following depicts the "On-disk" metadata layout:
+
+
+  Backing Store     +------->  Arena
++---------------+   |   +------------------+
+|               |   |   | Arena info block |
+|    Arena 0    +---+   |       4K         |
+|     512G      |       +------------------+
+|               |       |                  |
++---------------+       |                  |
+|               |       |                  |
+|    Arena 1    |       |   Data Blocks    |
+|     512G      |       |                  |
+|               |       |                  |
++---------------+       |                  |
+|       .       |       |                  |
+|       .       |       |                  |
+|       .       |       |                  |
+|               |       |                  |
+|               |       |                  |
++---------------+       +------------------+
+                        |                  |
+                        |     BTT Map      |
+                        |                  |
+                        |                  |
+                        +------------------+
+                        |                  |
+                        |     BTT Flog     |
+                        |                  |
+                        +------------------+
+                        | Info block copy  |
+                        |       4K         |
+                        +------------------+
+
+
+3. Theory of Operation
+----------------------
+
+
+a. The BTT Map
+--------------
+
+The map is a simple lookup/indirection table that maps an LBA to an internal
+block. Each map entry is 32 bits. The two most significant bits are special
+flags, and the remaining form the internal block number.
+
+Bit      Description
+31 - 30	: Error and Zero flags - Used in the following way:
+	 Bit		      Description
+	31 30
+	-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+	 00	Initial state. Reads return zeroes; Premap = Postmap
+	 01	Zero state: Reads return zeroes
+	 10	Error state: Reads fail; Writes clear 'E' bit
+	 11	Normal Block – has valid postmap
+
+
+29 - 0	: Mappings to internal 'postmap' blocks
+
+
+Some of the terminology that will be subsequently used:
+
+External LBA  : LBA as made visible to upper layers.
+ABA           : Arena Block Address - Block offset/number within an arena
+Premap ABA    : The block offset into an arena, which was decided upon by range
+		checking the External LBA
+Postmap ABA   : The block number in the "Data Blocks" area obtained after
+		indirection from the map
+nfree	      : The number of free blocks that are maintained at any given time.
+		This is the number of concurrent writes that can happen to the
+		arena.
+
+
+For example, after adding a BTT, we surface a disk of 1024G. We get a read for
+the external LBA at 768G. This falls into the second arena, and of the 512G
+worth of blocks that this arena contributes, this block is at 256G. Thus, the
+premap ABA is 256G. We now refer to the map, and find out the mapping for block
+'X' (256G) points to block 'Y', say '64'. Thus the postmap ABA is 64.
+
+
+b. The BTT Flog
+---------------
+
+The BTT provides sector atomicity by making every write an "allocating write",
+i.e. Every write goes to a "free" block. A running list of free blocks is
+maintained in the form of the BTT flog. 'Flog' is a combination of the words
+"free list" and "log". The flog contains 'nfree' entries, and an entry contains:
+
+lba     : The premap ABA that is being written to
+old_map : The old postmap ABA - after 'this' write completes, this will be a
+	  free block.
+new_map : The new postmap ABA. The map will up updated to reflect this
+	  lba->postmap_aba mapping, but we log it here in case we have to
+	  recover.
+seq	: Sequence number to mark which of the 2 sections of this flog entry is
+	  valid/newest. It cycles between 01->10->11->01 (binary) under normal
+	  operation, with 00 indicating an uninitialized state.
+lba'	: alternate lba entry
+old_map': alternate old postmap entry
+new_map': alternate new postmap entry
+seq'	: alternate sequence number.
+
+Each of the above fields is 32-bit, making one entry 32 bytes. Entries are also
+padded to 64 bytes to avoid cache line sharing or aliasing. Flog updates are
+done such that for any entry being written, it:
+a. overwrites the 'old' section in the entry based on sequence numbers
+b. writes the 'new' section such that the sequence number is written last.
+
+
+c. The concept of lanes
+-----------------------
+
+While 'nfree' describes the number of concurrent IOs an arena can process
+concurrently, 'nlanes' is the number of IOs the BTT device as a whole can
+process.
+ nlanes = min(nfree, num_cpus)
+A lane number is obtained at the start of any IO, and is used for indexing into
+all the on-disk and in-memory data structures for the duration of the IO. If
+there are more CPUs than the max number of available lanes, than lanes are
+protected by spinlocks.
+
+
+d. In-memory data structure: Read Tracking Table (RTT)
+------------------------------------------------------
+
+Consider a case where we have two threads, one doing reads and the other,
+writes. We can hit a condition where the writer thread grabs a free block to do
+a new IO, but the (slow) reader thread is still reading from it. In other words,
+the reader consulted a map entry, and started reading the corresponding block. A
+writer started writing to the same external LBA, and finished the write updating
+the map for that external LBA to point to its new postmap ABA. At this point the
+internal, postmap block that the reader is (still) reading has been inserted
+into the list of free blocks. If another write comes in for the same LBA, it can
+grab this free block, and start writing to it, causing the reader to read
+incorrect data. To prevent this, we introduce the RTT.
+
+The RTT is a simple, per arena table with 'nfree' entries. Every reader inserts
+into rtt[lane_number], the postmap ABA it is reading, and clears it after the
+read is complete. Every writer thread, after grabbing a free block, checks the
+RTT for its presence. If the postmap free block is in the RTT, it waits till the
+reader clears the RTT entry, and only then starts writing to it.
+
+
+e. In-memory data structure: map locks
+--------------------------------------
+
+Consider a case where two writer threads are writing to the same LBA. There can
+be a race in the following sequence of steps:
+
+free[lane] = map[premap_aba]
+map[premap_aba] = postmap_aba
+
+Both threads can update their respective free[lane] with the same old, freed
+postmap_aba. This has made the layout inconsistent by losing a free entry, and
+at the same time, duplicating another free entry for two lanes.
+
+To solve this, we could have a single map lock (per arena) that has to be taken
+before performing the above sequence, but we feel that could be too contentious.
+Instead we use an array of (nfree) map_locks that is indexed by
+(premap_aba modulo nfree).
+
+
+f. Reconstruction from the Flog
+-------------------------------
+
+On startup, we analyze the BTT flog to create our list of free blocks. We walk
+through all the entries, and for each lane, of the set of two possible
+'sections', we always look at the most recent one only (based on the sequence
+number). The reconstruction rules/steps are simple:
+- Read map[log_entry.lba].
+- If log_entry.new matches the map entry, then log_entry.old is free.
+- If log_entry.new does not match the map entry, then log_entry.new is free.
+  (This case can only be caused by power-fails/unsafe shutdowns)
+
+
+g. Summarizing - Read and Write flows
+-------------------------------------
+
+Read:
+
+1.  Convert external LBA to arena number + pre-map ABA
+2.  Get a lane (and take lane_lock)
+3.  Read map to get the entry for this pre-map ABA
+4.  Enter post-map ABA into RTT[lane]
+5.  If TRIM flag set in map, return zeroes, and end IO (go to step 8)
+6.  If ERROR flag set in map, end IO with EIO (go to step 8)
+7.  Read data from this block
+8.  Remove post-map ABA entry from RTT[lane]
+9.  Release lane (and lane_lock)
+
+Write:
+
+1.  Convert external LBA to Arena number + pre-map ABA
+2.  Get a lane (and take lane_lock)
+3.  Use lane to index into in-memory free list and obtain a new block, next flog
+        index, next sequence number
+4.  Scan the RTT to check if free block is present, and spin/wait if it is.
+5.  Write data to this free block
+6.  Read map to get the existing post-map ABA entry for this pre-map ABA
+7.  Write flog entry: [premap_aba / old postmap_aba / new postmap_aba / seq_num]
+8.  Write new post-map ABA into map.
+9.  Write old post-map entry into the free list
+10. Calculate next sequence number and write into the free list entry
+11. Release lane (and lane_lock)
+
+
+4. Error Handling
+=================
+
+An arena would be in an error state if any of the metadata is corrupted
+irrecoverably, either due to a bug or a media error. The following conditions
+indicate an error:
+- Info block checksum does not match (and recovering from the copy also fails)
+- All internal available blocks are not uniquely and entirely addressed by the
+  sum of mapped blocks and free blocks (from the BTT flog).
+- Rebuilding free list from the flog reveals missing/duplicate/impossible
+  entries
+- A map entry is out of bounds
+
+If any of these error conditions are encountered, the arena is put into a read
+only state using a flag in the info block.
+
+
+5. In-kernel usage
+==================
+
+Any block driver that supports byte granularity IO to the storage may register
+with the BTT. It will have to provide the rw_bytes interface in its
+block_device_operations struct:
+
+	int (*rw_bytes)(struct gendisk *, void *, size_t, off_t, int rw);
+
+It may register with the BTT after it adds its own gendisk, using btt_init:
+
+	struct btt *btt_init(struct gendisk *disk, unsigned long long rawsize,
+			u32 lbasize, u8 uuid[], int maxlane);
+
+note that maxlane is the maximum amount of concurrency the driver wishes to
+allow the BTT to use.
+
+The BTT 'disk' appears as a stacked block device that grabs the underlying block
+device in the O_EXCL mode.
+
+When the driver wishes to remove the backing disk, it should similarly call
+btt_fini using the same struct btt* handle that was provided to it by btt_init.
+
+	void btt_fini(struct btt *btt);
+
diff --git a/Documentation/nvdimm/nvdimm.txt b/Documentation/nvdimm/nvdimm.txt
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..197a0b6b0582
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/nvdimm/nvdimm.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,808 @@
+			  LIBNVDIMM: Non-Volatile Devices
+	      libnvdimm - kernel / libndctl - userspace helper library
+			   linux-nvdimm@lists.01.org
+				      v13
+
+
+	Glossary
+	Overview
+	    Supporting Documents
+	    Git Trees
+	LIBNVDIMM PMEM and BLK
+	Why BLK?
+	    PMEM vs BLK
+	        BLK-REGIONs, PMEM-REGIONs, Atomic Sectors, and DAX
+	Example NVDIMM Platform
+	LIBNVDIMM Kernel Device Model and LIBNDCTL Userspace API
+	    LIBNDCTL: Context
+	        libndctl: instantiate a new library context example
+	    LIBNVDIMM/LIBNDCTL: Bus
+	        libnvdimm: control class device in /sys/class
+	        libnvdimm: bus
+	        libndctl: bus enumeration example
+	    LIBNVDIMM/LIBNDCTL: DIMM (NMEM)
+	        libnvdimm: DIMM (NMEM)
+	        libndctl: DIMM enumeration example
+	    LIBNVDIMM/LIBNDCTL: Region
+	        libnvdimm: region
+	        libndctl: region enumeration example
+	        Why Not Encode the Region Type into the Region Name?
+	        How Do I Determine the Major Type of a Region?
+	    LIBNVDIMM/LIBNDCTL: Namespace
+	        libnvdimm: namespace
+	        libndctl: namespace enumeration example
+	        libndctl: namespace creation example
+	        Why the Term "namespace"?
+	    LIBNVDIMM/LIBNDCTL: Block Translation Table "btt"
+	        libnvdimm: btt layout
+	        libndctl: btt creation example
+	Summary LIBNDCTL Diagram
+
+
+Glossary
+--------
+
+PMEM: A system-physical-address range where writes are persistent.  A
+block device composed of PMEM is capable of DAX.  A PMEM address range
+may span an interleave of several DIMMs.
+
+BLK: A set of one or more programmable memory mapped apertures provided
+by a DIMM to access its media.  This indirection precludes the
+performance benefit of interleaving, but enables DIMM-bounded failure
+modes.
+
+DPA: DIMM Physical Address, is a DIMM-relative offset.  With one DIMM in
+the system there would be a 1:1 system-physical-address:DPA association.
+Once more DIMMs are added a memory controller interleave must be
+decoded to determine the DPA associated with a given
+system-physical-address.  BLK capacity always has a 1:1 relationship
+with a single-DIMM's DPA range.
+
+DAX: File system extensions to bypass the page cache and block layer to
+mmap persistent memory, from a PMEM block device, directly into a
+process address space.
+
+BTT: Block Translation Table: Persistent memory is byte addressable.
+Existing software may have an expectation that the power-fail-atomicity
+of writes is at least one sector, 512 bytes.  The BTT is an indirection
+table with atomic update semantics to front a PMEM/BLK block device
+driver and present arbitrary atomic sector sizes.
+
+LABEL: Metadata stored on a DIMM device that partitions and identifies
+(persistently names) storage between PMEM and BLK.  It also partitions
+BLK storage to host BTTs with different parameters per BLK-partition.
+Note that traditional partition tables, GPT/MBR, are layered on top of a
+BLK or PMEM device.
+
+
+Overview
+--------
+
+The LIBNVDIMM subsystem provides support for three types of NVDIMMs, namely,
+PMEM, BLK, and NVDIMM devices that can simultaneously support both PMEM
+and BLK mode access.  These three modes of operation are described by
+the "NVDIMM Firmware Interface Table" (NFIT) in ACPI 6.  While the LIBNVDIMM
+implementation is generic and supports pre-NFIT platforms, it was guided
+by the superset of capabilities need to support this ACPI 6 definition
+for NVDIMM resources.  The bulk of the kernel implementation is in place
+to handle the case where DPA accessible via PMEM is aliased with DPA
+accessible via BLK.  When that occurs a LABEL is needed to reserve DPA
+for exclusive access via one mode a time.
+
+Supporting Documents
+ACPI 6: http://www.uefi.org/sites/default/files/resources/ACPI_6.0.pdf
+NVDIMM Namespace: http://pmem.io/documents/NVDIMM_Namespace_Spec.pdf
+DSM Interface Example: http://pmem.io/documents/NVDIMM_DSM_Interface_Example.pdf
+Driver Writer's Guide: http://pmem.io/documents/NVDIMM_Driver_Writers_Guide.pdf
+
+Git Trees
+LIBNVDIMM: https://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/djbw/nvdimm.git
+LIBNDCTL: https://github.com/pmem/ndctl.git
+PMEM: https://github.com/01org/prd
+
+
+LIBNVDIMM PMEM and BLK
+------------------
+
+Prior to the arrival of the NFIT, non-volatile memory was described to a
+system in various ad-hoc ways.  Usually only the bare minimum was
+provided, namely, a single system-physical-address range where writes
+are expected to be durable after a system power loss.  Now, the NFIT
+specification standardizes not only the description of PMEM, but also
+BLK and platform message-passing entry points for control and
+configuration.
+
+For each NVDIMM access method (PMEM, BLK), LIBNVDIMM provides a block
+device driver:
+
+    1. PMEM (nd_pmem.ko): Drives a system-physical-address range.  This
+    range is contiguous in system memory and may be interleaved (hardware
+    memory controller striped) across multiple DIMMs.  When interleaved the
+    platform may optionally provide details of which DIMMs are participating
+    in the interleave.
+
+    Note that while LIBNVDIMM describes system-physical-address ranges that may
+    alias with BLK access as ND_NAMESPACE_PMEM ranges and those without
+    alias as ND_NAMESPACE_IO ranges, to the nd_pmem driver there is no
+    distinction.  The different device-types are an implementation detail
+    that userspace can exploit to implement policies like "only interface
+    with address ranges from certain DIMMs".  It is worth noting that when
+    aliasing is present and a DIMM lacks a label, then no block device can
+    be created by default as userspace needs to do at least one allocation
+    of DPA to the PMEM range.  In contrast ND_NAMESPACE_IO ranges, once
+    registered, can be immediately attached to nd_pmem.
+
+    2. BLK (nd_blk.ko): This driver performs I/O using a set of platform
+    defined apertures.  A set of apertures will all access just one DIMM.
+    Multiple windows allow multiple concurrent accesses, much like
+    tagged-command-queuing, and would likely be used by different threads or
+    different CPUs.
+
+    The NFIT specification defines a standard format for a BLK-aperture, but
+    the spec also allows for vendor specific layouts, and non-NFIT BLK
+    implementations may other designs for BLK I/O.  For this reason "nd_blk"
+    calls back into platform-specific code to perform the I/O.  One such
+    implementation is defined in the "Driver Writer's Guide" and "DSM
+    Interface Example".
+
+
+Why BLK?
+--------
+
+While PMEM provides direct byte-addressable CPU-load/store access to
+NVDIMM storage, it does not provide the best system RAS (recovery,
+availability, and serviceability) model.  An access to a corrupted
+system-physical-address address causes a cpu exception while an access
+to a corrupted address through an BLK-aperture causes that block window
+to raise an error status in a register.  The latter is more aligned with
+the standard error model that host-bus-adapter attached disks present.
+Also, if an administrator ever wants to replace a memory it is easier to
+service a system at DIMM module boundaries.  Compare this to PMEM where
+data could be interleaved in an opaque hardware specific manner across
+several DIMMs.
+
+PMEM vs BLK
+BLK-apertures solve this RAS problem, but their presence is also the
+major contributing factor to the complexity of the ND subsystem.  They
+complicate the implementation because PMEM and BLK alias in DPA space.
+Any given DIMM's DPA-range may contribute to one or more
+system-physical-address sets of interleaved DIMMs, *and* may also be
+accessed in its entirety through its BLK-aperture.  Accessing a DPA
+through a system-physical-address while simultaneously accessing the
+same DPA through a BLK-aperture has undefined results.  For this reason,
+DIMMs with this dual interface configuration include a DSM function to
+store/retrieve a LABEL.  The LABEL effectively partitions the DPA-space
+into exclusive system-physical-address and BLK-aperture accessible
+regions.  For simplicity a DIMM is allowed a PMEM "region" per each
+interleave set in which it is a member.  The remaining DPA space can be
+carved into an arbitrary number of BLK devices with discontiguous
+extents.
+
+BLK-REGIONs, PMEM-REGIONs, Atomic Sectors, and DAX
+--------------------------------------------------
+
+One of the few
+reasons to allow multiple BLK namespaces per REGION is so that each
+BLK-namespace can be configured with a BTT with unique atomic sector
+sizes.  While a PMEM device can host a BTT the LABEL specification does
+not provide for a sector size to be specified for a PMEM namespace.
+This is due to the expectation that the primary usage model for PMEM is
+via DAX, and the BTT is incompatible with DAX.  However, for the cases
+where an application or filesystem still needs atomic sector update
+guarantees it can register a BTT on a PMEM device or partition.  See
+LIBNVDIMM/NDCTL: Block Translation Table "btt"
+
+
+Example NVDIMM Platform
+-----------------------
+
+For the remainder of this document the following diagram will be
+referenced for any example sysfs layouts.
+
+
+                             (a)               (b)           DIMM   BLK-REGION
+          +-------------------+--------+--------+--------+
++------+  |       pm0.0       | blk2.0 | pm1.0  | blk2.1 |    0      region2
+| imc0 +--+- - - region0- - - +--------+        +--------+
++--+---+  |       pm0.0       | blk3.0 | pm1.0  | blk3.1 |    1      region3
+   |      +-------------------+--------v        v--------+
++--+---+                               |                 |
+| cpu0 |                                     region1
++--+---+                               |                 |
+   |      +----------------------------^        ^--------+
++--+---+  |           blk4.0           | pm1.0  | blk4.0 |    2      region4
+| imc1 +--+----------------------------|        +--------+
++------+  |           blk5.0           | pm1.0  | blk5.0 |    3      region5
+          +----------------------------+--------+--------+
+
+In this platform we have four DIMMs and two memory controllers in one
+socket.  Each unique interface (BLK or PMEM) to DPA space is identified
+by a region device with a dynamically assigned id (REGION0 - REGION5).
+
+    1. The first portion of DIMM0 and DIMM1 are interleaved as REGION0. A
+    single PMEM namespace is created in the REGION0-SPA-range that spans
+    DIMM0 and DIMM1 with a user-specified name of "pm0.0". Some of that
+    interleaved system-physical-address range is reclaimed as BLK-aperture
+    accessed space starting at DPA-offset (a) into each DIMM.  In that
+    reclaimed space we create two BLK-aperture "namespaces" from REGION2 and
+    REGION3 where "blk2.0" and "blk3.0" are just human readable names that
+    could be set to any user-desired name in the LABEL.
+
+    2. In the last portion of DIMM0 and DIMM1 we have an interleaved
+    system-physical-address range, REGION1, that spans those two DIMMs as
+    well as DIMM2 and DIMM3.  Some of REGION1 allocated to a PMEM namespace
+    named "pm1.0" the rest is reclaimed in 4 BLK-aperture namespaces (for
+    each DIMM in the interleave set), "blk2.1", "blk3.1", "blk4.0", and
+    "blk5.0".
+
+    3. The portion of DIMM2 and DIMM3 that do not participate in the REGION1
+    interleaved system-physical-address range (i.e. the DPA address below
+    offset (b) are also included in the "blk4.0" and "blk5.0" namespaces.
+    Note, that this example shows that BLK-aperture namespaces don't need to
+    be contiguous in DPA-space.
+
+    This bus is provided by the kernel under the device
+    /sys/devices/platform/nfit_test.0 when CONFIG_NFIT_TEST is enabled and
+    the nfit_test.ko module is loaded.  This not only test LIBNVDIMM but the
+    acpi_nfit.ko driver as well.
+
+
+LIBNVDIMM Kernel Device Model and LIBNDCTL Userspace API
+----------------------------------------------------
+
+What follows is a description of the LIBNVDIMM sysfs layout and a
+corresponding object hierarchy diagram as viewed through the LIBNDCTL
+api.  The example sysfs paths and diagrams are relative to the Example
+NVDIMM Platform which is also the LIBNVDIMM bus used in the LIBNDCTL unit
+test.
+
+LIBNDCTL: Context
+Every api call in the LIBNDCTL library requires a context that holds the
+logging parameters and other library instance state.  The library is
+based on the libabc template:
+https://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/kay/libabc.git/
+
+LIBNDCTL: instantiate a new library context example
+
+	struct ndctl_ctx *ctx;
+
+	if (ndctl_new(&ctx) == 0)
+		return ctx;
+	else
+		return NULL;
+
+LIBNVDIMM/LIBNDCTL: Bus
+-------------------
+
+A bus has a 1:1 relationship with an NFIT.  The current expectation for
+ACPI based systems is that there is only ever one platform-global NFIT.
+That said, it is trivial to register multiple NFITs, the specification
+does not preclude it.  The infrastructure supports multiple busses and
+we we use this capability to test multiple NFIT configurations in the
+unit test.
+
+LIBNVDIMM: control class device in /sys/class
+
+This character device accepts DSM messages to be passed to DIMM
+identified by its NFIT handle.
+
+	/sys/class/nd/ndctl0
+	|-- dev
+	|-- device -> ../../../ndbus0
+	|-- subsystem -> ../../../../../../../class/nd
+
+
+
+LIBNVDIMM: bus
+
+	struct nvdimm_bus *nvdimm_bus_register(struct device *parent,
+	       struct nvdimm_bus_descriptor *nfit_desc);
+
+	/sys/devices/platform/nfit_test.0/ndbus0
+	|-- commands
+	|-- nd
+	|-- nfit
+	|-- nmem0
+	|-- nmem1
+	|-- nmem2
+	|-- nmem3
+	|-- power
+	|-- provider
+	|-- region0
+	|-- region1
+	|-- region2
+	|-- region3
+	|-- region4
+	|-- region5
+	|-- uevent
+	`-- wait_probe
+
+LIBNDCTL: bus enumeration example
+Find the bus handle that describes the bus from Example NVDIMM Platform
+
+	static struct ndctl_bus *get_bus_by_provider(struct ndctl_ctx *ctx,
+			const char *provider)
+	{
+		struct ndctl_bus *bus;
+
+		ndctl_bus_foreach(ctx, bus)
+			if (strcmp(provider, ndctl_bus_get_provider(bus)) == 0)
+				return bus;
+
+		return NULL;
+	}
+
+	bus = get_bus_by_provider(ctx, "nfit_test.0");
+
+
+LIBNVDIMM/LIBNDCTL: DIMM (NMEM)
+---------------------------
+
+The DIMM device provides a character device for sending commands to
+hardware, and it is a container for LABELs.  If the DIMM is defined by
+NFIT then an optional 'nfit' attribute sub-directory is available to add
+NFIT-specifics.
+
+Note that the kernel device name for "DIMMs" is "nmemX".  The NFIT
+describes these devices via "Memory Device to System Physical Address
+Range Mapping Structure", and there is no requirement that they actually
+be physical DIMMs, so we use a more generic name.
+
+LIBNVDIMM: DIMM (NMEM)
+
+	struct nvdimm *nvdimm_create(struct nvdimm_bus *nvdimm_bus, void *provider_data,
+			const struct attribute_group **groups, unsigned long flags,
+			unsigned long *dsm_mask);
+
+	/sys/devices/platform/nfit_test.0/ndbus0
+	|-- nmem0
+	|   |-- available_slots
+	|   |-- commands
+	|   |-- dev
+	|   |-- devtype
+	|   |-- driver -> ../../../../../bus/nd/drivers/nvdimm
+	|   |-- modalias
+	|   |-- nfit
+	|   |   |-- device
+	|   |   |-- format
+	|   |   |-- handle
+	|   |   |-- phys_id
+	|   |   |-- rev_id
+	|   |   |-- serial
+	|   |   `-- vendor
+	|   |-- state
+	|   |-- subsystem -> ../../../../../bus/nd
+	|   `-- uevent
+	|-- nmem1
+	[..]
+
+
+LIBNDCTL: DIMM enumeration example
+
+Note, in this example we are assuming NFIT-defined DIMMs which are
+identified by an "nfit_handle" a 32-bit value where:
+Bit 3:0 DIMM number within the memory channel
+Bit 7:4 memory channel number
+Bit 11:8 memory controller ID
+Bit 15:12 socket ID (within scope of a Node controller if node controller is present)
+Bit 27:16 Node Controller ID
+Bit 31:28 Reserved
+
+	static struct ndctl_dimm *get_dimm_by_handle(struct ndctl_bus *bus,
+	       unsigned int handle)
+	{
+		struct ndctl_dimm *dimm;
+
+		ndctl_dimm_foreach(bus, dimm)
+			if (ndctl_dimm_get_handle(dimm) == handle)
+				return dimm;
+
+		return NULL;
+	}
+
+	#define DIMM_HANDLE(n, s, i, c, d) \
+		(((n & 0xfff) << 16) | ((s & 0xf) << 12) | ((i & 0xf) << 8) \
+		 | ((c & 0xf) << 4) | (d & 0xf))
+
+	dimm = get_dimm_by_handle(bus, DIMM_HANDLE(0, 0, 0, 0, 0));
+
+LIBNVDIMM/LIBNDCTL: Region
+----------------------
+
+A generic REGION device is registered for each PMEM range orBLK-aperture
+set.  Per the example there are 6 regions: 2 PMEM and 4 BLK-aperture
+sets on the "nfit_test.0" bus.  The primary role of regions are to be a
+container of "mappings".  A mapping is a tuple of <DIMM,
+DPA-start-offset, length>.
+
+LIBNVDIMM provides a built-in driver for these REGION devices.  This driver
+is responsible for reconciling the aliased DPA mappings across all
+regions, parsing the LABEL, if present, and then emitting NAMESPACE
+devices with the resolved/exclusive DPA-boundaries for the nd_pmem or
+nd_blk device driver to consume.
+
+In addition to the generic attributes of "mapping"s, "interleave_ways"
+and "size" the REGION device also exports some convenience attributes.
+"nstype" indicates the integer type of namespace-device this region
+emits, "devtype" duplicates the DEVTYPE variable stored by udev at the
+'add' event, "modalias" duplicates the MODALIAS variable stored by udev
+at the 'add' event, and finally, the optional "spa_index" is provided in
+the case where the region is defined by a SPA.
+
+LIBNVDIMM: region
+
+	struct nd_region *nvdimm_pmem_region_create(struct nvdimm_bus *nvdimm_bus,
+			struct nd_region_desc *ndr_desc);
+	struct nd_region *nvdimm_blk_region_create(struct nvdimm_bus *nvdimm_bus,
+			struct nd_region_desc *ndr_desc);
+
+	/sys/devices/platform/nfit_test.0/ndbus0
+	|-- region0
+	|   |-- available_size
+	|   |-- btt0
+	|   |-- btt_seed
+	|   |-- devtype
+	|   |-- driver -> ../../../../../bus/nd/drivers/nd_region
+	|   |-- init_namespaces
+	|   |-- mapping0
+	|   |-- mapping1
+	|   |-- mappings
+	|   |-- modalias
+	|   |-- namespace0.0
+	|   |-- namespace_seed
+	|   |-- numa_node
+	|   |-- nfit
+	|   |   `-- spa_index
+	|   |-- nstype
+	|   |-- set_cookie
+	|   |-- size
+	|   |-- subsystem -> ../../../../../bus/nd
+	|   `-- uevent
+	|-- region1
+	[..]
+
+LIBNDCTL: region enumeration example
+
+Sample region retrieval routines based on NFIT-unique data like
+"spa_index" (interleave set id) for PMEM and "nfit_handle" (dimm id) for
+BLK.
+
+	static struct ndctl_region *get_pmem_region_by_spa_index(struct ndctl_bus *bus,
+			unsigned int spa_index)
+	{
+		struct ndctl_region *region;
+
+		ndctl_region_foreach(bus, region) {
+			if (ndctl_region_get_type(region) != ND_DEVICE_REGION_PMEM)
+				continue;
+			if (ndctl_region_get_spa_index(region) == spa_index)
+				return region;
+		}
+		return NULL;
+	}
+
+	static struct ndctl_region *get_blk_region_by_dimm_handle(struct ndctl_bus *bus,
+			unsigned int handle)
+	{
+		struct ndctl_region *region;
+
+		ndctl_region_foreach(bus, region) {
+			struct ndctl_mapping *map;
+
+			if (ndctl_region_get_type(region) != ND_DEVICE_REGION_BLOCK)
+				continue;
+			ndctl_mapping_foreach(region, map) {
+				struct ndctl_dimm *dimm = ndctl_mapping_get_dimm(map);
+
+				if (ndctl_dimm_get_handle(dimm) == handle)
+					return region;
+			}
+		}
+		return NULL;
+	}
+
+
+Why Not Encode the Region Type into the Region Name?
+----------------------------------------------------
+
+At first glance it seems since NFIT defines just PMEM and BLK interface
+types that we should simply name REGION devices with something derived
+from those type names.  However, the ND subsystem explicitly keeps the
+REGION name generic and expects userspace to always consider the
+region-attributes for 4 reasons:
+
+    1. There are already more than two REGION and "namespace" types.  For
+    PMEM there are two subtypes.  As mentioned previously we have PMEM where
+    the constituent DIMM devices are known and anonymous PMEM.  For BLK
+    regions the NFIT specification already anticipates vendor specific
+    implementations.  The exact distinction of what a region contains is in
+    the region-attributes not the region-name or the region-devtype.
+
+    2. A region with zero child-namespaces is a possible configuration.  For
+    example, the NFIT allows for a DCR to be published without a
+    corresponding BLK-aperture.  This equates to a DIMM that can only accept
+    control/configuration messages, but no i/o through a descendant block
+    device.  Again, this "type" is advertised in the attributes ('mappings'
+    == 0) and the name does not tell you much.
+
+    3. What if a third major interface type arises in the future?  Outside
+    of vendor specific implementations, it's not difficult to envision a
+    third class of interface type beyond BLK and PMEM.  With a generic name
+    for the REGION level of the device-hierarchy old userspace
+    implementations can still make sense of new kernel advertised
+    region-types.  Userspace can always rely on the generic region
+    attributes like "mappings", "size", etc and the expected child devices
+    named "namespace".  This generic format of the device-model hierarchy
+    allows the LIBNVDIMM and LIBNDCTL implementations to be more uniform and
+    future-proof.
+
+    4. There are more robust mechanisms for determining the major type of a
+    region than a device name.  See the next section, How Do I Determine the
+    Major Type of a Region?
+
+How Do I Determine the Major Type of a Region?
+----------------------------------------------
+
+Outside of the blanket recommendation of "use libndctl", or simply
+looking at the kernel header (/usr/include/linux/ndctl.h) to decode the
+"nstype" integer attribute, here are some other options.
+
+    1. module alias lookup:
+
+    The whole point of region/namespace device type differentiation is to
+    decide which block-device driver will attach to a given LIBNVDIMM namespace.
+    One can simply use the modalias to lookup the resulting module.  It's
+    important to note that this method is robust in the presence of a
+    vendor-specific driver down the road.  If a vendor-specific
+    implementation wants to supplant the standard nd_blk driver it can with
+    minimal impact to the rest of LIBNVDIMM.
+
+    In fact, a vendor may also want to have a vendor-specific region-driver
+    (outside of nd_region).  For example, if a vendor defined its own LABEL
+    format it would need its own region driver to parse that LABEL and emit
+    the resulting namespaces.  The output from module resolution is more
+    accurate than a region-name or region-devtype.
+
+    2. udev:
+
+    The kernel "devtype" is registered in the udev database
+    # udevadm info --path=/devices/platform/nfit_test.0/ndbus0/region0
+    P: /devices/platform/nfit_test.0/ndbus0/region0
+    E: DEVPATH=/devices/platform/nfit_test.0/ndbus0/region0
+    E: DEVTYPE=nd_pmem
+    E: MODALIAS=nd:t2
+    E: SUBSYSTEM=nd
+
+    # udevadm info --path=/devices/platform/nfit_test.0/ndbus0/region4
+    P: /devices/platform/nfit_test.0/ndbus0/region4
+    E: DEVPATH=/devices/platform/nfit_test.0/ndbus0/region4
+    E: DEVTYPE=nd_blk
+    E: MODALIAS=nd:t3
+    E: SUBSYSTEM=nd
+
+    ...and is available as a region attribute, but keep in mind that the
+    "devtype" does not indicate sub-type variations and scripts should
+    really be understanding the other attributes.
+
+    3. type specific attributes:
+
+    As it currently stands a BLK-aperture region will never have a
+    "nfit/spa_index" attribute, but neither will a non-NFIT PMEM region.  A
+    BLK region with a "mappings" value of 0 is, as mentioned above, a DIMM
+    that does not allow I/O.  A PMEM region with a "mappings" value of zero
+    is a simple system-physical-address range.
+
+
+LIBNVDIMM/LIBNDCTL: Namespace
+-------------------------
+
+A REGION, after resolving DPA aliasing and LABEL specified boundaries,
+surfaces one or more "namespace" devices.  The arrival of a "namespace"
+device currently triggers either the nd_blk or nd_pmem driver to load
+and register a disk/block device.
+
+LIBNVDIMM: namespace
+Here is a sample layout from the three major types of NAMESPACE where
+namespace0.0 represents DIMM-info-backed PMEM (note that it has a 'uuid'
+attribute), namespace2.0 represents a BLK namespace (note it has a
+'sector_size' attribute) that, and namespace6.0 represents an anonymous
+PMEM namespace (note that has no 'uuid' attribute due to not support a
+LABEL).
+
+	/sys/devices/platform/nfit_test.0/ndbus0/region0/namespace0.0
+	|-- alt_name
+	|-- devtype
+	|-- dpa_extents
+	|-- force_raw
+	|-- modalias
+	|-- numa_node
+	|-- resource
+	|-- size
+	|-- subsystem -> ../../../../../../bus/nd
+	|-- type
+	|-- uevent
+	`-- uuid
+	/sys/devices/platform/nfit_test.0/ndbus0/region2/namespace2.0
+	|-- alt_name
+	|-- devtype
+	|-- dpa_extents
+	|-- force_raw
+	|-- modalias
+	|-- numa_node
+	|-- sector_size
+	|-- size
+	|-- subsystem -> ../../../../../../bus/nd
+	|-- type
+	|-- uevent
+	`-- uuid
+	/sys/devices/platform/nfit_test.1/ndbus1/region6/namespace6.0
+	|-- block
+	|   `-- pmem0
+	|-- devtype
+	|-- driver -> ../../../../../../bus/nd/drivers/pmem
+	|-- force_raw
+	|-- modalias
+	|-- numa_node
+	|-- resource
+	|-- size
+	|-- subsystem -> ../../../../../../bus/nd
+	|-- type
+	`-- uevent
+
+LIBNDCTL: namespace enumeration example
+Namespaces are indexed relative to their parent region, example below.
+These indexes are mostly static from boot to boot, but subsystem makes
+no guarantees in this regard.  For a static namespace identifier use its
+'uuid' attribute.
+
+static struct ndctl_namespace *get_namespace_by_id(struct ndctl_region *region,
+                unsigned int id)
+{
+        struct ndctl_namespace *ndns;
+
+        ndctl_namespace_foreach(region, ndns)
+                if (ndctl_namespace_get_id(ndns) == id)
+                        return ndns;
+
+        return NULL;
+}
+
+LIBNDCTL: namespace creation example
+Idle namespaces are automatically created by the kernel if a given
+region has enough available capacity to create a new namespace.
+Namespace instantiation involves finding an idle namespace and
+configuring it.  For the most part the setting of namespace attributes
+can occur in any order, the only constraint is that 'uuid' must be set
+before 'size'.  This enables the kernel to track DPA allocations
+internally with a static identifier.
+
+static int configure_namespace(struct ndctl_region *region,
+                struct ndctl_namespace *ndns,
+                struct namespace_parameters *parameters)
+{
+        char devname[50];
+
+        snprintf(devname, sizeof(devname), "namespace%d.%d",
+                        ndctl_region_get_id(region), paramaters->id);
+
+        ndctl_namespace_set_alt_name(ndns, devname);
+        /* 'uuid' must be set prior to setting size! */
+        ndctl_namespace_set_uuid(ndns, paramaters->uuid);
+        ndctl_namespace_set_size(ndns, paramaters->size);
+        /* unlike pmem namespaces, blk namespaces have a sector size */
+        if (parameters->lbasize)
+                ndctl_namespace_set_sector_size(ndns, parameters->lbasize);
+        ndctl_namespace_enable(ndns);
+}
+
+
+Why the Term "namespace"?
+
+    1. Why not "volume" for instance?  "volume" ran the risk of confusing ND
+    as a volume manager like device-mapper.
+
+    2. The term originated to describe the sub-devices that can be created
+    within a NVME controller (see the nvme specification:
+    http://www.nvmexpress.org/specifications/), and NFIT namespaces are
+    meant to parallel the capabilities and configurability of
+    NVME-namespaces.
+
+
+LIBNVDIMM/LIBNDCTL: Block Translation Table "btt"
+---------------------------------------------
+
+A BTT (design document: http://pmem.io/2014/09/23/btt.html) is a stacked
+block device driver that fronts either the whole block device or a
+partition of a block device emitted by either a PMEM or BLK NAMESPACE.
+
+LIBNVDIMM: btt layout
+Every region will start out with at least one BTT device which is the
+seed device.  To activate it set the "namespace", "uuid", and
+"sector_size" attributes and then bind the device to the nd_pmem or
+nd_blk driver depending on the region type.
+
+	/sys/devices/platform/nfit_test.1/ndbus0/region0/btt0/
+	|-- namespace
+	|-- delete
+	|-- devtype
+	|-- modalias
+	|-- numa_node
+	|-- sector_size
+	|-- subsystem -> ../../../../../bus/nd
+	|-- uevent
+	`-- uuid
+
+LIBNDCTL: btt creation example
+Similar to namespaces an idle BTT device is automatically created per
+region.  Each time this "seed" btt device is configured and enabled a new
+seed is created.  Creating a BTT configuration involves two steps of
+finding and idle BTT and assigning it to consume a PMEM or BLK namespace.
+
+	static struct ndctl_btt *get_idle_btt(struct ndctl_region *region)
+	{
+		struct ndctl_btt *btt;
+
+		ndctl_btt_foreach(region, btt)
+			if (!ndctl_btt_is_enabled(btt)
+					&& !ndctl_btt_is_configured(btt))
+				return btt;
+
+		return NULL;
+	}
+
+	static int configure_btt(struct ndctl_region *region,
+			struct btt_parameters *parameters)
+	{
+		btt = get_idle_btt(region);
+
+		ndctl_btt_set_uuid(btt, parameters->uuid);
+		ndctl_btt_set_sector_size(btt, parameters->sector_size);
+		ndctl_btt_set_namespace(btt, parameters->ndns);
+		/* turn off raw mode device */
+		ndctl_namespace_disable(parameters->ndns);
+		/* turn on btt access */
+		ndctl_btt_enable(btt);
+	}
+
+Once instantiated a new inactive btt seed device will appear underneath
+the region.
+
+Once a "namespace" is removed from a BTT that instance of the BTT device
+will be deleted or otherwise reset to default values.  This deletion is
+only at the device model level.  In order to destroy a BTT the "info
+block" needs to be destroyed.  Note, that to destroy a BTT the media
+needs to be written in raw mode.  By default, the kernel will autodetect
+the presence of a BTT and disable raw mode.  This autodetect behavior
+can be suppressed by enabling raw mode for the namespace via the
+ndctl_namespace_set_raw_mode() api.
+
+
+Summary LIBNDCTL Diagram
+------------------------
+
+For the given example above, here is the view of the objects as seen by the LIBNDCTL api:
+            +---+
+            |CTX|    +---------+   +--------------+  +---------------+
+            +-+-+  +-> REGION0 +---> NAMESPACE0.0 +--> PMEM8 "pm0.0" |
+              |    | +---------+   +--------------+  +---------------+
++-------+     |    | +---------+   +--------------+  +---------------+
+| DIMM0 <-+   |    +-> REGION1 +---> NAMESPACE1.0 +--> PMEM6 "pm1.0" |
++-------+ |   |    | +---------+   +--------------+  +---------------+
+| DIMM1 <-+ +-v--+ | +---------+   +--------------+  +---------------+
++-------+ +-+BUS0+---> REGION2 +-+-> NAMESPACE2.0 +--> ND6  "blk2.0" |
+| DIMM2 <-+ +----+ | +---------+ | +--------------+  +----------------------+
++-------+ |        |             +-> NAMESPACE2.1 +--> ND5  "blk2.1" | BTT2 |
+| DIMM3 <-+        |               +--------------+  +----------------------+
++-------+          | +---------+   +--------------+  +---------------+
+                   +-> REGION3 +-+-> NAMESPACE3.0 +--> ND4  "blk3.0" |
+                   | +---------+ | +--------------+  +----------------------+
+                   |             +-> NAMESPACE3.1 +--> ND3  "blk3.1" | BTT1 |
+                   |               +--------------+  +----------------------+
+                   | +---------+   +--------------+  +---------------+
+                   +-> REGION4 +---> NAMESPACE4.0 +--> ND2  "blk4.0" |
+                   | +---------+   +--------------+  +---------------+
+                   | +---------+   +--------------+  +----------------------+
+                   +-> REGION5 +---> NAMESPACE5.0 +--> ND1  "blk5.0" | BTT0 |
+                     +---------+   +--------------+  +---------------+------+
+
+