block: add max_hw_transfer to BlockLimits

For block host devices, I/O can happen through either the kernel file
descriptor I/O system calls (preadv/pwritev, io_submit, io_uring)
or the SCSI passthrough ioctl SG_IO.

In the latter case, the size of each transfer can be limited by the
HBA, while for file descriptor I/O the kernel is able to split and
merge I/O in smaller pieces as needed.  Applying the HBA limits to
file descriptor I/O results in more system calls and suboptimal
performance, so this patch splits the max_transfer limit in two:
max_transfer remains valid and is used in general, while max_hw_transfer
is limited to the maximum hardware size.  max_hw_transfer can then be
included by the scsi-generic driver in the block limits page, to ensure
that the stricter hardware limit is used.

Signed-off-by: Paolo Bonzini <pbonzini@redhat.com>

1 files changed, 7 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/include/block/block_int.h b/include/block/block_int.h
index 057d88b1fc..f1a54db0f8 100644
--- a/include/block/block_int.h
+++ b/include/block/block_int.h
@@ -695,6 +695,13 @@ typedef struct BlockLimits {
      * clamped down. */
     uint32_t max_transfer;
 
+    /* Maximal hardware transfer length in bytes.  Applies whenever
+     * transfers to the device bypass the kernel I/O scheduler, for
+     * example with SG_IO.  If larger than max_transfer or if zero,
+     * blk_get_max_hw_transfer will fall back to max_transfer.
+     */
+    uint64_t max_hw_transfer;
+
     /* memory alignment, in bytes so that no bounce buffer is needed */
     size_t min_mem_alignment;