Libvirt generates external snapshot target file names for file backed
storage but not for block backed storage. Document the limitation.
Resolves:
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1032363
---
docs/formatsnapshot.html.in | 8 +++++---
tools/virsh.pod | 4 +++-
2 files changed, 8 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)
diff --git a/docs/formatsnapshot.html.in b/docs/formatsnapshot.html.in
index 1f9a6c6..4f7b7b2 100644
--- a/docs/formatsnapshot.html.in
+++ b/docs/formatsnapshot.html.in
@@ -164,9 +164,11 @@
attribute <code>type</code> giving the driver type (such
as qcow2), of the new file created by the external
snapshot of the new file. If <code>source</code> is not
- given, a file name is generated that consists of the
- existing file name with anything after the trailing dot
- replaced by the snapshot name. Remember that with external
+ given and the disk is backed by a local image file (not
+ a block device or remote storage), a file name is
+ generated that consists of the existing file name
+ with anything after the trailing dot replaced by the
+ snapshot name. Remember that with external
snapshots, the original file name becomes the read-only
snapshot, and the new file name contains the read-write
delta of all disk changes since the snapshot.
diff --git a/tools/virsh.pod b/tools/virsh.pod
index a5e8406..5da71c3 100644
--- a/tools/virsh.pod
+++ b/tools/virsh.pod
@@ -3219,7 +3219,9 @@ The I<--diskspec> option can be used to control how
I<--disk-only> and
external checkpoints create external files. This option can occur
multiple times, according to the number of <disk> elements in the domain
xml. Each <diskspec> is in the
-form B<disk[,snapshot=type][,driver=type][,file=name]>. To include a
+form B<disk[,snapshot=type][,driver=type][,file=name]>. A I<diskspec>
+must be provided for disks backed by block devices as libvirt doesn't
+auto-generate file names for those. To include a
literal comma in B<disk> or in B<file=name>, escape it with a second
comma. A literal I<--diskspec> must precede each B<diskspec> unless
all three of I<domain>, I<name>, and I<description> are also present.
--
2.0.0