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Assume "DEVICE partitions" if no DEVICE line present.
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4948b8f7
NB
1Changes Prior to this release
2 - Support 'mailfrom' line in mdadm.conf so the From: line in alert
3 emails can be explicitly set.
d1732eeb
NB
4 - Arrange that SparesMissing (which is similar in import to
5 DegradedArray) generates an Email.
a99d6b66 6 - Assume "DEVICE partitions" if no DEVICE line is given.
4948b8f7 7
ac957baa
NB
8Changes Prior to 2.4.1 release
9 - Honour --write-mostly when adding to an array without persistent
10 superblocks.
11 - Fix alignment problem in version-1 superblocks.
12 NOTE: This is an incompatable change affecting raid5 reshape.
13 If you want to reshape a raid5 using version-1 superblocks,
14 use 2.6.17-rc2 or later, and mdadm-2.4.1 or later.
15
2efedc7b
NB
16Changes Prior to 2.4 release
17 - Rewrite 'reshape' support including performing a backup
18 of the critical region for a raid5 growth, and restoring that
19 backup after a crash.
20 - Put a 'canary' at each end of the backup so a corruption
21 can be more easily detected.
31317663 22 - Remove useless 'ident' arguement from ->getinfo_super method.
d7514c58
NB
23 - Support --backup-file for backing-up critical section during
24 growth.
25 - Erase old superblocks (of different versions) when creating new
26 array.
27 - Allow --monitor to work with arrays with >28 devices
28 - Report reshape information in --detail
29 - Handle symlinks in /dev better
30 - Fix mess in --detail output which a device is missing.
2ae555c3 31 - Manpage tidyup
7ef02d01
NB
32 - Support 'bitmap=' in mdadm.conf for auto-assembling arrays with
33 write-intent bitmaps in separate files.
addc80c4 34 - Updates to md.4 man page including section on RESTRIPING and SYSFS
2efedc7b 35
1e0d770c
NB
36Changes Prior to 2.3.1 release
37 - Fixed -O2 compile so I could make and RPM.
38 - Type cast number to be printed %llu so it compiles on 64bit
39 machines. (Thanks Luca).
40 - Stop using asm/byteorder.h - to make Redhat happy :-(
41 - Require bitmap files to have a '/' in their name.
42 - Error-check a few syscalls - code from SuSE package.
43
44Changes Prior to 2.3 release
ce4fafd6
NB
45 - Try /etc/mdadm/mdadm.conf if /etc/mdadm.conf doesn't exist.
46 This provided compatability for Debian.
a92f6acc
NB
47 - Fixed for version-1 superblock:
48 report chunksize for raid6 and raid10
49 make sure device size used is a multiple of chunksize
50 - Fix "--assemble --scan" crash.
51 - Fix completely failure to create array on ppc64
52 - Fix memcmp in place of memcpy
53 - A few minor improvements to online help
54 - Clean up usage of 'long long' for used-size of devices, so
55 that it is possible to create a raid1 of 7TB devices!
56 - Make internal bitmaps work on 7TB raid1 arrays.
57 - Provide error message if --examine doesn't find any superblock.
58 - Report 'reshape' status in --examine - this depends on kernel
59 patches that are not yet finalised.
60 - Report bitmap status in --detail and --examine
61 - Default to v1 superblocks instead of v0.90 if the array
62 is too big for 0.90 to handle.
63 - Sort the output of "mdadm --detail --scan" so that it is
64 in a suitable order for assembling arrays. i.e. components come
65 before an array that they are part of.
66 - Print size of large reiserfs array properly went warning of
67 possible confilcts.
ce4fafd6 68
f3c7fda6 69Changes Prior to 2.2 release
f9c25f1d
NB
70 - Assorted bug fixes
71 - Support write-intent-bitmaps on raid10
72 - Support little-endian (Rather than hostendian) bitmaps.
73 - Return correct error code from 'mdadm -S'
d9d4e469 74 - Remove extra blank line from 'mdadm -Eb' output.
c06487ce
NB
75 - Improve option parsing so that -a and -b do not have
76 optional arguements: the arg is either required or not
77 depending on context.
8b0dabea
NB
78 - Allow scanning of devices listed in /proc/partitions even
79 if they don't appear in /dev.
47d79ef8 80 - Support --assume-clean in --create mode as well as --build
773135f5
NB
81 - Add support for --monitor to report to syslog: -y or --syslog.
82 Thanks to Ross Vandegrift
fe394e5e
NB
83 - --monitor now reports which device failed in a 'Fail' message
84 This broke with 2.6
ee04451c
NB
85 - Improve chance of array starting properly after a crash.
86 mdadm was insisting the event numbers were identical, but this
87 isn't needed, and is a problem if the crash was while the metadata
88 was being updated.
7d99579f 89 - Support --update==uuid
0ff1a185
NB
90 - Added README.initramfs and mkinitramfs to help people use an
91 initram for starting md arrays at boot.
f9c25f1d
NB
92
93Changes Prior to 2.1 release
265e0f17
NB
94 - Fix assembling of raid10 array when devices are missing.
95 mdadm now correctly detects if a array is workable or not
96 depending on which devices are present, and so will correctly
97 handle "--assemble --force" if multiple devices have failed.
98 - Report raid10 layout in --examine output.
308e1801
NB
99 - Fix assembling of arrays that use the version-1 superblock and
100 have spares. Previously the spares would be ignored.
101 - Fix bug so that multiple drives can be re-added at once.
f6d75de8
NB
102 - Fix problem with hot-adding a bitmap to version-1-superblock
103 arrays.
265e0f17
NB
104
105Changes Prior to 2.0
586ed405
NB
106 - Support assembling from byte-swapped superblocks
107 metadata type "0.swap" and --update=byteorder
dfd4d8ee 108 - write-mostly and write-behind support for raid1.
947fd4dd
NB
109 - Support --name= and 'name=' config entry for identifying
110 arrays be name.
a9d69660
NB
111 - RAID10 in man pages.
112 - Lot of minor manpage updates
586ed405 113
f277ce36
NB
114Changes Prior to 2.0-devel-3 release
115 - Assorted fixes for multiple bugs...
5e7519fa 116 - Add test suite
f277ce36
NB
117
118Changes Prior to 1.12.0 release
60f91664 119 Several of these are backported from the Debian package
0bbc98b5 120 - Don't use 'lstat' to check for blockdevices, use stat.
779043ef 121 - Document --size=max option for --grow
b8f72a62 122 - Document SparesMissing event and DeviceDisappeared/WrongLevel
91f068bf
NB
123 - --stop --scan repeatly cycles until no more progress can be made
124 so that stack devices are stopped properly
3fa06e9d 125 - Minor type rationalisation for ident->uuid - now always 'int[]'
891d2994 126 - Fix type in online help for --grow (was -F, now -G)
1337546d
NB
127 - Allow --auto command line option to set default auto=
128 value when running "--assemble --scan". Previously
129 --auto was ignored if --scan was given
a46f4061 130 - Fix a few type casts
5a6d1148 131 - Fix parsing of /dev/md/N in is_standard
d5d3721e 132 - Fix rounding errors in human_size()
60f91664 133 - Fix silly example in mdadm.conf-examples
b79713f8 134 - When finding a /dev name for a device, prefer shorter names
22892d56
NB
135 - Suppress listing of devices= in --brief output of -D or -E,
136 unless -v is given (-vv gives the old behaviour with -Dsv).
137 This is because the device list can change and so is not a
138 stable aspect of the array
bd72c2b2 139 - Allow --force with --grow so '-Gfn1' works (on raid1)
8f23b0b3 140 - Replace sprintf calls with snprintf (to quiet diet-libc)
ccf44f32 141 - Add man page for mdassemble
fe6729fa 142 - Fix compilation with tinyc
0bbc98b5 143
e5811618 144Changes Prior to 1.11.0 release
0fbf459d
NB
145 - Fix embarassing bug which causes --add to always fail.
146
d7eaf49f
NB
147Changes Prior to 1.10.0 release
148 - Fix bug with --config=partitions
149 - Open sub-devices with O_EXCL to detect if already in use
b2b46bfc
NB
150 - Make sure superblock updates are flushed directly to disk.
151
f277ce36 152Changes Prior to 2.0-devel-1 release
e793c2e5
NB
153 - Support for version-1 superblock. See --metadata option.
154 - Support for bitmap based intent logging.
155 - Minor fixes.
156
9a4e08d2
NB
157Changes Prior to 1.9.0 release
158 - Fix rpm build problem (stray %)
19f8b8fc 159 - Minor manpage updates
182661f4 160 - Change "dirty" status to "active" as it was confusing people.
8d80900b
NB
161 - --assemble --auto recognises 'standard' name and insists on using
162 the appropriate major/minor number for them.
163 - Remove underscore from partition names, so partitions of
164 "foo" are "foo1", "foo2" etc (unchanged) and partitions of
165 "f00" are "f00p1", "f00p2" etc rather than "f00_p1"...
0df46c2a
NB
166 - Use "major", "minor", "makedev" macros instead of
167 "MAJOR", "MINOR", "MKDEV" so that large device numbers work
168 on 2.6 (providing you have glibc 2.3.3 or later).
43fc1676 169 - Add some missing closes of open file descriptors.
057bd352
NB
170 - Reread /proc/partition for every array assembled when using
171 it to find devices, rather than only once.
d17c1f8c
NB
172 - Make "mdadm -Ss" stop stacked devices properly, by reversing the
173 order in which arrays are stopped.
e6b64cd0 174 - Improve some error messages.
0320ea45
NB
175 - Allow device name to appear before first option, so e.g.
176 mdadm /dev/md0 -A /dev/sd[ab]
177 works.
178 - Assume '-Q' if just a device is given, rather than being silent.
a3fd117c
NB
179 - Change "dirty" status to "active" as it was confusing people.
180
b5e64645
NB
181Changes Prior to 1.8.0 release
182 - Makefile cleanup from Luca Berra <bluca@comedia.it>
183 - --pid-file (-i) to set a pid file to use with --monitor --daemonise
184 - Fix typo in mdadm man page
185 - Fix coredump when "-s" used with no config file present.
186 - Support new "faulty" personality which can inject synthetic
187 faults. (Not in kernel.org yet at 1Nov2004)
188 - Support raid0/linear on devices > 2 Terabytes
189 - Make sure raid6 resyncs when created with one missing device
190
191Changes Prior to 1.7.0 release
e5329c37
NB
192 - Support "--grow --add" to add a device to a linear array, if the
193 kernel supports it. Not documented yet.
194 - Restore support for uclibc which was broken recently.
195 - Several improvements to the output of --detail, including
196 reporting "resyncing" or "recovering" in the state.
197 - Close filedescriptor at end of --detail (exit would have closed it
198 anyway, so this isn't abig deal).
199 - Report "Sync checkpoint" in --examine output if appropriate.
200 - Add --update=resync for --assemble mode to for a resync when the
201 array is assembled.
202 - Add support for "raid10", which is under development in 2.6.
203 Not documented yet.
204 - --monitor now reads spare-group and spares info from config file
205 even when names of arrays to scan are given on the command line
206
dd0781e5
NB
207Changes Prior to 1.6.0 release
208 - Device name given in -Eb is determined by examining /dev rather
209 than assuming /dev/md%d
210 - Fix bug in --monitor where an array could be held open an so
211 could not be stopped without killing mdadm.
212 - Add --grow mode. Currently only --size and --raid-disks can be
213 changed. Both require kernel support which, at the time of
214 writing, is not in a release kernel yet.
215 - Don't print out "errors" or "no-errors" in -D and -E, as the bit
216 is never set or used.
217 - Use md event notification in 2.6.??? to make --monitor mode
218 respond instantly to events.
219 - Add --auto= option and auto= configfile entry to tell mdadm to
220 create device files as needed. This is particularly useful
221 with partitioned arrays where the major device number can change.
222 - When generating --brief listing, if the standard name doesn't
223 exist, search /dev for one rather than using a temp name.
224 - Allow --build to build raid1 and multipath arrays.
225 - Add "--assume-clean" for Create and Build, particularly for raid1
226 Note: this is dangerous. Only use it if you are certain.
227 - Fix bug so that Rebuild status monitoring works again.
228 - Add "degraded" and "recovering" options to the "Status:"
229 entry for --detail
230
231Changes Prior to 1.5.0 release
98c6faba
NB
232 - new commands "mdassemble" which is a stripped-down equivalent of
233 "mdadm -As", that can be compiled with dietlibc.
234 Thanks to Luca Berra <bluca@comedia.it>.
235 It can be using in an initramfs or initrd.
236 - Fix compiling error with BLKGETSIZE64 and some signed/unsigned
237 comparison warnings.
238 - Add Rebuild Status (% complete) to --detail output.
239 - Support "--monitor --test" which will generate a test alert
240 for each array once, to test notification paths.
241 - Generate RebuildFinished event when rebuild finishes.
242 - Support for raid6 as found in 2.6.2 - thanks to
243 H. Peter Anvin <hpa@zytor.com>
244 - Support partitioned md arrays with a different major number and
245 naming scheme (md_dX in /proc/mdstat, /dev/md/dXpY in /dev).
246
feb716e9
NB
247Changes Prior to 1.4.0 release
248 - Document fact that creating a raid5 array really creates a
249 degraded array with a spare.
250 - Add "spares=" tag to config file and generate it wit --detail and
251 --examine
252 - Add "SparesMissing" event when --monitor first sees an array and
253 it doesn't have the enough spare devices.
254 - Add --update=summaries for --assemble to update summary
255 information in superblock, and correct other inconsistancies in
256 the superblock.
257 - Add --test option to --detail to set a meaningful exit status.
258
aa88f531
NB
259Changes Prior to 1.3.0 release
260 - Make 'size' and unsigned long in Create to allow creation of
261 larger arrays.
262 - Explicitly flag spare devices as 'spare' in --detail and --examine
263 output. Previously they simply had no flags lists.
264 - Make MailCmd (for monitor) configurable in Makefile, and default
265 to "/usr/sbin/sendmail -t". Also split out the warning related
266 flags into CWFLAGS for easier build configurability.
267 - Minor bugfix in Manage code.
268 - --monitor now notices and reports degraded arrays at startup using
269 "DegradedArray" event, and also has a --oneshot option to only
270 report DegradedArrays, and then exit.
271 - Small man-page clarification w.r.t. raid levels and raid4 in
272 particular.
273 - Disallow creation of arrays with only one device as this is
274 probably a mistake. --force will override this check.
275 - Correct some misleading documentation in the "mdadm --create --help"
276 message.
277 - Ignore chunksize if raid1 or multipath.
278 - Explicit statement in man page that raid-disks cannot be changed
279 after array is created.
280 - Improve message when attempting to start an array with
281 insufficient devices. Instead of required the array to be full,
282 we only require it has as many active devices as last time.
283
56eedc1a
NB
284Changes Prior to 1.2.0 release
285 - Fix bug where --daemonise required an argument.
286 - In --assemble --verbose, print appropriate message if device is
287 not in devices= list
288 - Updated mdadm.conf.5 to reflect fact that device= takes wildcards
289 - Typos: componenet -> component
290 - Reduce size of "--help" message put excess into "--help-options"
291 - Fix bug introduced when MD_SB_DISKS dependancy removed, and which
292 caused spares not be assembled properly.
293 - Print appropriate message if --monitor --scan decides not to
294 monitor anything.
d013a55e
NB
295Changes Prior to 1.1.0 release
296 - add --deamonise flag for --monitor - forks and prints pid to stdout
297 - Fix bug so we REALLY clear dirty flag with -Af
298 - -Db now prints a 'devices=' word for each array.
299 - "mdadm -A /dev/md0" will get info from configfile, even without scan
300 - When assembling multipath arrays, ignore devices which are flagged
301 as having errors.
302 - take --super-minor=dev to mean "use the minor number of the mddev
303 being assembled.
304 - take --config=none to mean "completely ignore config file"
305 - Make --monitor require --scan or a device list.
5787fa49
NB
306Changes Prior to 1.0.9 release
307 - Documentation updates including kernel parameters documented
308 in md.4
309 - --assemble --force for raid4/5 will mark clean, needed for 2.5
310 - --detail prints out the events counter as well
311 - flush device before reading superblock to be sure to get
312 current data
313 - added mdadm.static target to makefile for static linking
314 - --monitor was ignoring /dev/md0 due to off-by-one error
315 - Fix assorted typos
316 - Fix printing of Gibibytes - calc was wrong.
317 - Fix printing of Array Size in --detail when very big.
318 - --monitor no longer tries to work for raid0 or linear as these
d013a55e 319 have nothing to be monitored.
5787fa49
NB
320 - The word 'partitions' on a DEVICE line will cause all partitions
321 listed in /proc/partitions to be considered
322 - If the config file is called 'partitions' then it will be treated
323 as though it contained exactly 'device partitions' so e.g.
324 mdadm -Ebsc partitions
d013a55e 325 will find all raid partitions easily.
5787fa49
NB
326 - successfully assemble multipath devices by ignoring raid_disk
327 value from superblock (it is always the same).
328 - --assemble not tied to MD_SB_DISKS limit quite so much
329 - Support compiling with tcc
330 - Support compiling with uclibc - just skip scan of /dev
331 - Add --update= option for Assemble mode. Either sparc2.2
332 or super-minor updates are possible. See mdadm.8
333
334Changes Prior to 1.0.1 release
bd526cee
NB
335 - Round off MB/GiB etc values instead of round down.
336 - Add --sparc2.2 option to examine to shift superblock around
337 and --sparc2.2update to rewrite the superblock
5787fa49 338 - Fix assorted typos in online help
bd526cee
NB
339
340Changes Prior to 1.0.0 release
2d465520
NB
341 - Allow --config with Misc mode (for --examine --scan)
342 - Add $(CXFLAGS) to end of CFLAGS in makefile
343 - When making an N disk raid5 array, the Nth drive
344 is moved to the end of the array as a spare rather than
345 being shifted up one place. This means that when the
346 kernel builds onto the last spare and inserts it,
347 the devices will be in the expected order.
348 - Man page improvements
349Changes Prior to 0.8.2 release
b83d95f3
NB
350 - Correct spelling of persist[ae]nce/persist[ae]nt.
351 - Change "disk" to "device" in options and config file
352 - convert array size to "long long" *before* shift-left in -D and -Q
353
354Changes Prior to 0.8.1 release
c913b90e
NB
355 - Add "INSTALL" file.
356 - Fix some "i" variables that were not being set properly
357 - Initialise minsize and maxsize so that compilers don't complain.
358 - Tidy up Makefile and mdadm.spec installations
359 - Add "multipath" to documentation of valid levels
360
361Changes Prior to 0.8 release
e0d19036
NB
362 - Fix another bug in Assemble.c due to confusing 'i' with 'j'
363 - Minimal, untested, support for multipath
364 - re-write of argument parsing to have more coherent modes,
365 - add --query,-Q option
366 - Update mdadm.8 to reflect arg processing change and --query
367 - Change "long" to "unsigned long" for device sizes
368 - Handle "mailaddr" and "program" lines in config file for follow/scan mode.
369 - --follow --scan will exit if no program or mail found
370 - Add MAILADDR and PROGRAM to mdadm.conf-example
371 - Spell check man pages
372 - consistently use "component devices" instead of "subdevices"
373 - Make -Wall -Werror really work and fix lots of errors.
374 - --detail and --stop can have --scan which chooses devices from /proc/mdstat
375 - --monitor detects 20% changes in resync, failed spares,
376 disappearing arrays,
377 - --monitor --scan will automatically add any devices found in /proc/mdstat
378 - --monitor will move spares between arrays with same spare-group if necessary
379 - Documentation for Monitor Mode
380 - --query notes if the array containing the given device is active or not
381 - Finished md.4 man page.
382
383Changes Prior to 0.7.2 release
11a3e71d
NB
384 - mdadm.spec updates and ifdef BLKGETSIZE64 from Luca Berra -- bluca@comedia.it
385 - more mdadm.spec updates from Gregory Leblanc <gleblanc@linuxweasel.com>
386 - make directory for mdadm.conf configurable in Makefile
387 - Finished mdadm.conf.5. Removed details of conf file from
388 mdadm.8 leaving a reference to mdadm.conf.5.
389 - Fix bug in Assemble.c, thanks to Junaid Rizvi <domdev@sat.net.pk>
390 - Get --assemble --force to make sure old major/minor numbers are
391 consistant, as md.c worries about this :-(
392
393
394Changes Prior to 0.7.1 release
56eb10c0
NB
395 - update mdadm.spec
396 - use BLKGETSIZE64 if available for array size
397 - give human readable as GiB/MiB and GB and MB, with 2 decimal point precision
398 - Only warn about size variation for raid1/4/5.
399 - Started md.4 man page
400 - Started mdadm.conf.5 man page
401
9a9dab36
NB
402Changes Prior to 0.7 release
403
404 - Fix makefile to install binary at /sbin and not /sbin/sbin
405 Also install man page.
406 - Add --zero-superblock based on --destroywithextremeprejudice
407 from Dale Stephenson <steph@snapserver.com>
408 - change name to mdadm. It is palandromic, and much nicer to pronouce.
409
cd29a5c8
NB
410Changes Prior to 0.6 release
411
9a9dab36 412 - Remove the limit on the number of device names that can be
cd29a5c8
NB
413 given on the command line.
414 - Fix bug in --assemble --force where it would only update a
415 single superblock.
416 - Fix bogus printing of big numbers not being block devices
417 when given names of devices that don't exist.
418 - When --assemble --force, consider superblocks with an event
419 count that is 1 behind as out-of-date. Normally they are
420 considered up-to-date (as the kernel assumes this too).
421 - When marking drives as not-failed in the superblock,
422 we also mark them as ACTIVE and SYNC.
423 - Don't start arrays for which not all drives are available unless:
424 --scan which implies that all drives were found automatically
425 --run which means the user knows what they want
426 --force which means that we are fixing something broken
427 - Make sure all device numbers passed as 3rd arg of ioctl
428 are passed as unsigned lock, so that it works on SPARC
429 - If HOT_ADD_DISK failes for -a, then only try ADD_NEW_DISK
430 if we cannot read from the array, i.e. if the array is
431 not started yet.
432 - man page update
433 - Taught Examine to handle --scan. It examines all devices listed
434 on DEVICE lines in the config file.
435 - Added --brief (-b) flag for Examine and Detail to print out
436 and mdctl.conf compatible description with uuid=, level=,
437 disks= and - for Examine - devices=
438 --examine --brief collects all devices the make the one array and
439 list them as one entry.
440 - Added level= and disks= options to ARRAY lines in config files
441 so --brief output could be used as-is.
442 - Make parity style ({left,right}-{,a}symmetric) consistantly use -,
443 never _.
444 - Add "Array Size" to --detail output
445 - Change "Size" to "Device Size" and exclude from Detail of arrays
446 that do not have a consistent device size.
447 - Add Human readable MiB or GiB value on size lines of Detail and Examine
448 - --assemble --scan doesn't complain about active drives
449 - require number of spares given in -x to be listed.
450 - Made --build actually work.
451Changes Prior to 0.5 release
452
453 --assemble:
454 spare drives are handled properly.
455
456 --force can be used to recover from 2-drive failures on RAID5
457 If you belive that /dev/hda1 /dev/hdb1 /dev/hdc1 /dev/hdd1 should
458 make a raid5 array, but it has experienced multiple failures and
459 wont start, then
460
461 mdctl --assemble --force /dev/md0 /dev/hd[abcd]1
462
463 Should update the superblock on the newest failed drive and
464 restart the array in degraded mode. You should then remove the
465 remaining failed drive and re-add it (if you are happy that it
466 might work).
467
468 Ofcourse whenever you have a 2-drive failure, you have a risk
469 of corruption in data that hasn't be changed for a long time. So
470 this doesn't give you your array back all nice and happy, but it
471 does allow you to recover data that might not be corrupt.
472
473 More flexibility in identifying a RAID array in the mdctl.conf
474 e.g.
475 array /dev/md4 super-minor=4
476
477 assembles /dev/md4 from all devices found that have a raid
478 superblock that says the minor number of the array is 4.
479 If the blocks with the right minor number do not all have the
480 same UUID, an error is flags and no assembly happens.
481
482 array /dev/md3 devices=/dev/hd[abc]2
483
484 Assembles /dev/md3 drom /dev/hda2 /dev/hdb2 and/dev/hdc2. All
485 devices must exist and have raid superblock with the same uuid.
486
487 If two identity specifiers are used, only devices that match all
488 of them are considered, so
489
490 array /dev/md2 devices=/dev/hd?2 super-minor=2
491
492 will assemble /dev/md2 using all /dev/hd?2 devices which have a
493 raid superblock with minor number 2.
494
495 --create:
496 When listing devices for --create, the word "missing" can be
497 used to indicate that the respective slot does not have a
498 working drive currently. This is similar to the "failed-disk"
499 directive in mkraid/raidtab.
500 e.g.
501 mdctl --create --level=5 -raid-disks=4 --spare-disks=2
502 /dev/md0 /dev/sda /dev/sdb missing /dev/sdc /dev/sdd /dev/sde
503
504 will create a raid5 array with the third slot empty, and two
505 spares.
506
507 By default, raid5 arrays are created with the last slot empty
508 and drive listed for the last slot added as a spare. If a
509 "missing" slot is given, or if --force is given, then --create
510 does exactly what you ask and doesn't try to be clever.
511
512
513 --follow / --monitor:
514
515 This is a new mode. I couldn't stop my self from picking a name
516 starting with F (as current modes start A,B,C,D,E) but I
517 relented and provided an alternate name that is somewhat more
518 meaningful.
519
520 In this mode, mdctl does not exit, but runs continuously and
521 periodically polls all the md devices to see if they have had
522 any interested state change.
523 The changes that it currently notices are:
524 Fail - an active disc fails
525 FailSpare - a spare, that was presumably being build, fails
526 ActiveSpare - a spare becomes active, presumably after a rebuild.
527
528 Options:
529 --mail mailaddress - send Email on any Fail* event
530 --program program - run the program on any event.
531 Args are: eventname mddevice subdevice(if-known)
532 --delay seconds - change from the default 60second pause
533 between polls.
534
535 I plan to add functionality to this mode to allow sharing of
536 spare drives. If an array is marks "spare-group=fred", and it
537 has a failed drive and no spares, and if some other array is
538 also "spare-group=fred" and it has no failed drives, but does
539 have a spare drive that is big enough, the spare will be moved
540 to the first array.
541
542 I also have the idea of adding a --grow mode which will re-organise
543 the data on an N disk raid0/4/5 array to be on an N+M disk array.
544 I have no concrete plans for this though.
545
546 I got rid of the "v" in the archive file name, and include the
547 version number in the directory created by the archive.
548
549 There is now a man page and mdctl.spec (for rpm) thanks to
550 Danilo Godec <danci@agenda.si>.
551
552 Ofcourse, the man page is now out of date and despite being based on
553 the --help output, is not wholy correct. After I get --follow
554 working properly, I plan to revise the various documentation and/or
555 the code to make sure the two match.