Provided by: libnbd-dev_1.2.2-1ubuntu2_amd64 bug

NAME

       libnbd - network block device (NBD) client library in userspace

SYNOPSIS

        #include <libnbd.h>

        struct nbd_handle *nbd;
        char buf[512];

        if ((nbd = nbd_create ()) == NULL ||
            nbd_connect_tcp (nbd, "server.example.com", "nbd") == -1 ||
            nbd_pread (nbd, buf, sizeof buf, 0, 0) == -1)
          fprintf (stderr, "%s\n", nbd_get_error ());
          nbd_close (nbd);
          exit (EXIT_FAILURE);
        }
        nbd_close (nbd);

        cc prog.c -o prog -lnbd
       or:
        cc prog.c -o prog `pkg-config libnbd --cflags --libs`

DESCRIPTION

       Network Block Device (NBD) is a network protocol for accessing block devices over the network.  Block
       devices are hard disks and things that behave like hard disks such as disk images and virtual machines.

       Libnbd is a client library for the NBD protocol which can access most of the features of NBD while being
       simple to use and powerful.

       This manual page gives an overview of libnbd, using C as an example, but the library is available from
       other programming languages.

       nbd_create(3), nbd_pread(3), etc.
           Each  manual  page  covers one function from the C API in detail.  There is a full list in section "C
           API" below.

       libnbd-ocaml(3)
           Using the API from OCaml.

       nbdsh(1)
           Using the NBD shell (nbdsh) for command line and scripting.

HANDLES

       To use the API at all you must first open a handle by calling nbd_create(3) (or its equivalent  in  other
       languages):

        struct nbd_handle *nbd;

        nbd = nbd_create ();

       This  creates  and  returns a handle, which is associated with one connection to an NBD server, initially
       not connected.

       Each handle is a complex state machine which can be in states such as  created,  connected  to  a  remote
       server, handshaking, idle and ready to issue commands, or busy sending or receiving commands.

       There are two levels of API available.  A simple high level synchronous API lets you give the handle high
       level  instructions  like  “connect  to the server”, “read a block”, “write a block”, etc.  Each of these
       functions will run to completion, blocking the current thread before returning.  A more  complicated  low
       level  non-blocking  asynchronous  API  is also available where you can integrate with poll(2) or another
       main loop.

       You can freely mix the two APIs on the same handle.  You can also call  APIs  on  a  single  handle  from
       multiple  threads.   Single  API  calls  on the handle are atomic — they either take a lock on the handle
       while they run or are careful to access handle fields atomically.

       Libnbd does not create its own threads.

USING THE SYNCHRONOUS (“HIGH LEVEL”) API

       This is the simplest way to use the API, with the possible drawback  that  each  libnbd  function  blocks
       until it is finished.

       Create a handle and connect to the server:

        struct nbd_handle *nbd;

        nbd = nbd_create ();
        if (!nbd) {
          fprintf (stderr, "%s\n", nbd_get_error ());
          nbd_close (nbd);
          exit (EXIT_FAILURE);
        }
        if (nbd_connect_tcp (nbd, "server.example.com", "nbd") == -1) {
          fprintf (stderr, "%s\n", nbd_get_error ());
          nbd_close (nbd);
          exit (EXIT_FAILURE);
        }

       Read the first sector (512 bytes) from the NBD export:

        char buf[512];

        if (nbd_pread (nbd, buf, sizeof buf, 0, 0) == -1) {
          fprintf (stderr, "%s\n", nbd_get_error ());
          nbd_close (nbd);
          exit (EXIT_FAILURE);
        }

       Close the handle:

        nbd_close (nbd);

       You  can  call  the  high  level  API from multiple threads, but each libnbd API call takes a lock on the
       handle and so commands will not run in parallel.

USING THE ASYNCHRONOUS (“LOW LEVEL”) API

       The low level API is useful if you want to use libnbd in non-blocking code;  or  if  you  want  to  issue
       commands  in  parallel from multiple threads; or if you need more control especially over having multiple
       commands in-flight on a single connection.

       To use the low level API you will need to integrate with poll(2) or another “main loop” such as the  GLib
       main event loop.

   Issuing asynchronous commands
       Use  the  "nbd_aio_*"  variants  to  issue  commands  asynchronously  (without waiting for the command to
       complete before returning).  For example the asynchronous variant of nbd_pread(3) is:

        int64_t cookie;

        cookie = nbd_aio_pread (nbd, buf, sizeof buf,
                                NBD_NULL_COMPLETION, 0);
        if (cookie == -1) {
          fprintf (stderr, "%s\n", nbd_get_error ());
          nbd_close (nbd);
          exit (EXIT_FAILURE);
        }

       There are several things to note here:

       •   This only starts the command.  The command is still in flight when the call returns.

       •   A buffer ("buf") has been assigned to collect the result of the read, but it is not guaranteed to  be
           filled  with data until the command has completed (see examples below).  The buffer must not be freed
           until the command has finished running.

       •   You can issue multiple commands on the same handle at the same time.

       •   A cookie is returned which identifies this command in subsequent calls.  The cookie  is  unique  (per
           libnbd handle) and ≥ 1.

       •   You  may  register  a function which is called when the command completes, see "Completion callbacks"
           below.  In this case we have specified a null completion callback.

   Socket and direction
       Each libnbd handle has an associated socket (once it has started connecting).   You  can  read  the  file
       descriptor of the socket using:

        int fd = nbd_aio_get_fd (nbd);

       The  socket  is  non-blocking.   Between calls into libnbd it is in the "would block" condition.  You can
       find out if libnbd is expecting to read or write from the socket next by calling:

        int dir = nbd_aio_get_direction (nbd);

       which     returns     one     of     "LIBNBD_AIO_DIRECTION_READ",     "LIBNBD_AIO_DIRECTION_WRITE"     or
       "LIBNBD_AIO_DIRECTION_BOTH"  (=  "READ|WRITE").   And so to set up the next call to poll(2) or other main
       loop you must translate this to "POLLIN", "POLLOUT" or "POLLIN|POLLOUT" (or whatever mechanism your  main
       loop uses).

   Notifying libnbd when an event happens
       When  you detect (eg. using poll(2)) that a read or write event has happened on the socket, you must then
       tell libnbd about it.  You have to check the direction again (since it may have been changed  by  another
       thread), and notify libnbd:

        int r = 0;

        dir = nbd_aio_get_direction (nbd);

        if ((dir & LIBNBD_AIO_DIRECTION_READ) &&
                        a_read_event_occurred ())
          r = nbd_aio_notify_read (nbd);
        else if ((dir & LIBNBD_AIO_DIRECTION_WRITE) &&
                        a_write_event_occurred ())
          r = nbd_aio_notify_write (nbd);

        if (r == -1) {
          fprintf (stderr, "%s\n", nbd_get_error ());
          // ...
        }

       The  notify  calls  move  the  state machine along, reading and writing from the socket possibly multiple
       times, until the socket would block again, at which point they return control to the caller.

   Simple implementation with nbd_poll(3)
       In fact if you want to use poll(2) on a single handle, a simple implementation has already  been  written
       called  nbd_poll(3).   It  is  also  useful  to examine how this is implemented (lib/poll.c in the libnbd
       source code) because that will tell you how to integrate libnbd with more complex main loops.

       Some examples of using nbd_poll(3) follow.

       As with the high level API, it all starts by creating a handle:

        struct nbd_handle *nbd;

        nbd = nbd_create ();
        if (nbd == NULL) {
          fprintf (stderr, "%s\n", nbd_get_error ());
          nbd_close (nbd);
          exit (EXIT_FAILURE);
        }

       To connect to the server asynchronously, we start the connection using nbd_aio_connect(3) and then  enter
       our main loop to check for events until the connection becomes ready:

        int fd;
        struct sockaddr_un addr;
        socklen_t len;

        /* some code to set up addr,
           then ... */
        if (nbd_aio_connect (nbd, &addr, len) == -1) {
          fprintf (stderr, "%s\n", nbd_get_error ());
          nbd_close (nbd);
          exit (EXIT_FAILURE);
        }
        while (! nbd_aio_is_ready (nbd)) {
          if (nbd_poll (nbd, -1) == -1) {
            fprintf (stderr, "%s\n", nbd_get_error ());
            nbd_close (nbd);
            exit (EXIT_FAILURE);
          }
        }

       To  read  data asynchronously, start an asynchronous read command, which returns a 64 bit command cookie,
       and enter the main loop until the command has completed:

        int64_t cookie;
        char buf[512];

        cookie = nbd_aio_pread (nbd, buf, sizeof buf, offset,
                                NBD_NULL_COMPLETION, 0);
        if (cookie == -1) {
          fprintf (stderr, "%s\n", nbd_get_error ());
          nbd_close (nbd);
          exit (EXIT_FAILURE);
        }
        while (! nbd_aio_command_completed (nbd, cookie)) {
          if (nbd_poll (nbd, -1) == -1) {
            fprintf (stderr, "%s\n", nbd_get_error ());
            nbd_close (nbd);
            exit (EXIT_FAILURE);
          }
        }

       For almost all high level synchronous  calls  (eg.  nbd_pread(3))  there  is  a  low  level  asynchronous
       equivalent (eg. nbd_aio_pread(3)) for starting a command.

   glib2 integration
       See https://github.com/libguestfs/libnbd/blob/master/examples/glib-main-loop.c

ERROR HANDLING

       When  any API call returns an error ("-1" or "NULL" depending on the API), an error message and sometimes
       an errno value are available.  You can retrieve the error message  and/or  errno  of  the  most  recently
       failed call using nbd_get_error(3) and nbd_get_errno(3).  For example:

        if (nbd_connect_tcp (nbd, "remote", "nbd") == -1) {
          fprintf (stderr,
                   "failed to connect to remote server: %s (errno = %d)\n",
                   nbd_get_error (), nbd_get_errno ());
        }

       These  functions use thread-local storage to return the most recent error in the current thread.  This is
       why you don't need to pass the handle to these calls.  They even work  if  nbd_create(3)  returns  "NULL"
       when there is no handle at all.

       For this reason you cannot call them from a different thread.  You should call them immediately after the
       failed API call, from the same thread.  Furthermore the error string returned by nbd_get_error(3) is only
       valid  until  the  next libnbd API call in the current thread, so if you need to keep the string you must
       copy it (eg. using strdup(3)).

   Errno
       For some errors, a system call error number (see errno(3)) is available.  You can find the  error  number
       by calling nbd_get_errno(3).  It works the same way as nbd_get_error(3) with respect to threads.

       Even  when  a  call  returns  an error, nbd_get_errno(3) might return 0.  This does not mean there was no
       error.  It means no additional errno information is available for this error.

       The error number is often the raw error returned by a system call that failed.

       It can also be used to indicate special conditions.  The most common cases are:

       "EINVAL"
           Invalid parameters or state for the current libnbd call.

       "ENOTSUP"
           The libnbd call is not available in this build of libnbd (eg. when using a TLS API if the library was
           compiled without TLS support).

       "ENOMEM"
           The library ran out of memory while performing some operation.

       "ERANGE"
           A request is too large, for example if you try to read too many bytes in a single nbd_pread(3) call.

DEBUGGING MESSAGES

       Libnbd can print lots of debugging messages, useful if you have  a  problem  with  the  library.   Either
       enable debugging after creating the handle:

        nbd = nbd_create ();
        nbd_set_debug (nbd, true);

       or  set  the  "LIBNBD_DEBUG=1"  environment  variable  which  will enable debugging by default on all new
       handles.

       Debugging messages are sent to stderr by default, but you can redirect them to  a  logging  system  using
       nbd_set_debug_callback(3).

CONNECTING TO LOCAL OR REMOTE NBD SERVERS

       There  are  several  ways to connect to NBD servers, and you can even run a server from libnbd.  Normally
       you would connect to a server which is already running, over a local Unix domain socket or a  remote  TCP
       connection.  The high level API calls are:

        nbd_connect_unix (nbd, "socket");
        nbd_connect_tcp (nbd, "localhost", "nbd");

       For  nbd_connect_tcp(3)  the  third parameter is the port name or number, which can either be a name from
       /etc/services or the port number as a string (eg. "10809").

   Connecting to an NBD URI
       libnbd supports the NBD URI specification.  The URIs that libnbd  currently  supports  is  documented  in
       nbd_connect_uri(3).

       You can connect to a URI as in these examples (using the high level API):

        nbd_connect_uri (nbd, "nbd://example.com/");

        nbd_connect_uri (nbd, "nbds+unix:///export?socket=/tmp/nbd.sock");

       This  feature  is implemented by calling other libnbd APIs to set up the export name, TLS parameters, and
       finally connect over a Unix domain socket or TCP.

       URI  support  is  an  optional  feature  of  the  library,  requiring  libxml2  at  compile  time.    The
       nbd_connect_uri(3)  and nbd_aio_connect_uri(3) calls will raise an error (with nbd_get_errno(3) returning
       "ENOTSUP") if it was not built with this  feature,  and  you  can  also  test  for  it  explicitly  using
       nbd_supports_uri(3).

   Connecting to a subprocess
       Some NBD servers — notably nbdkit(1) with the -s parameter, and nbd-server(1) with the port parameter set
       to  0  —  can  also  accept  a  single  NBD  connection  on stdin/stdout.  You can run these servers as a
       subprocess of your main program using nbd_connect_command(3).  This example creates  a  1G  writable  RAM
       disk:

        char *argv[] = { "nbdkit", "-s", "--exit-with-parent",
                                   "memory", "1G", NULL };
        nbd_connect_command (nbd, argv);

       When  the  handle  is  closed  the  nbdkit subprocess is killed, which in this case means the RAM disk is
       discarded, so this is useful for testing.

   Connecting to a subprocess using systemd socket activation
       Some NBD servers — notably nbdkit(1) and qemu-nbd(1) — support systemd socket activation allowing  libnbd
       to pass a socket to the subprocess.  This works very similarly to nbd_connect_command(3) described above,
       but you must use nbd_connect_systemd_socket_activation(3) instead.

EXPORTS AND FLAGS

       It is possible for NBD servers to serve different content on different “exports”.  For this you must pass
       the right export name to the server.  Call this API before connecting:

        nbd_set_export_name (nbd, "export");

       Note  that  there  are  some  servers  (like nbdkit(1) ≤ 1.14) which ignore this, and other servers (like
       qemu-nbd(8)) which require it to be set correctly but cannot serve different content.

   Flag calls
       After connecting the server will send back a set of flags describing the export, such as  whether  it  is
       writable and if it can support flush to permanent storage.  These flags can be accessed from libnbd using
       APIs such as:

        int is_read_only = nbd_is_read_only (nbd);
        int can_flush = nbd_can_flush (nbd);

       Flag  calls are: nbd_can_cache(3), nbd_can_df(3), nbd_can_fast_zero(3), nbd_can_flush(3), nbd_can_fua(3),
       nbd_can_meta_context(3), nbd_can_multi_conn(3),  nbd_can_trim(3),  nbd_can_zero(3),  nbd_is_read_only(3),
       nbd_is_rotational(3).

   Size of the export
       To get the size of the export in bytes, use nbd_get_size(3):

        int64_t size = nbd_get_size (nbd);

DATA COMMANDS

       You  can  read  and  write  data  from  the  NBD  server  using  nbd_pread(3)  and nbd_pwrite(3) or their
       asynchronous equivalents.

       Some servers also support:

       trim/discard
           If nbd_can_trim(3) returns true, nbd_trim(3) can be used to “punch holes” in the backing  storage  of
           the disk on the server.  Normally (although not in every case) the holes read back as zeroes but take
           up no space.

       zeroing
           If  nbd_can_zero(3)  returns  true,  nbd_zero(3)  can  be  used to efficiently zero parts of the disk
           without having to send large amounts of zero bytes over the network (as would be necessary  if  using
           nbd_pwrite(3)).

           This  is  slightly  different from trimming because the backing storage is still allocated.  For some
           storage types this can make future writes more efficient and/or less likely to fail because of out of
           space errors.

       flushing
           Some servers can commit data to permanent storage and tell  you  that  this  has  happened  reliably.
           There are two export flags associated with this: nbd_can_flush(3) and nbd_can_fua(3).

           The nbd_flush(3) call (available if nbd_can_flush(3) returns true) flushes all pending writes to disk
           and  does  not  complete  until that operation has finished.  It is similar to using sync(2) on POSIX
           systems.

           A more efficient way to achieve this is to set the flag  "LIBNBD_CMD_FLAG_FUA"  on  write-like  calls
           (like write, trim and zero).  This flag means the call will not complete until committed to permanent
           storage, but it does not involve flushing the entire disk.

       prefetching
           Some  servers can prefetch data, making subsequent reads faster.  The nbd_cache(3) call (available if
           nbd_can_cache(3) returns true) is used to prefetch.

       block status
           Some servers are able to provide information about the various extents  within  the  image,  via  the
           notion of one or more meta contexts.  The most common meta context is "base:allocation" (available in
           libnbd.h  as  "LIBNBD_CONTEXT_BASE_ALLOCATION"),  which can be used to learn which portions of a file
           are allocated or read as zero.  Other contexts may be available; for example, qemu-nbd(8) can  expose
           a  meta context "qemu:dirty-bitmap:NAME" for tracking which portions of a file are tracked by a qcow2
           dirty bitmap.

           In order to utilize block status, the client must call nbd_add_meta_context(3) prior  to  connecting,
           for  each meta context in which it is interested, then check nbd_can_meta_context(3) after connection
           to see which contexts the server actually supports.  If a context is supported, the client  can  then
           use  nbd_block_status(3)  with a callback function that will receive an array of 32-bit integer pairs
           describing consecutive extents within a context.  In each pair, the first integer is  the  length  of
           the  extent,  the  second is a bitmask description of that extent (for the "base:allocation" context,
           the  bitmask  may  include  "LIBNBD_STATE_HOLE"  for  unallocated  portions  of  the   file,   and/or
           "LIBNBD_STATE_ZERO" for portions of the file known to read as zero).

           There   is  a  full  example  of  requesting  meta  context  and  using  block  status  available  at
           https://github.com/libguestfs/libnbd/blob/master/interop/dirty-bitmap.c

PERFORMANCE

   Issuing multiple in-flight requests
       NBD servers which properly implement the specification can handle multiple requests in  flight  over  the
       same connection at the same time.  Libnbd supports this when using the low level API.

       To   use  it  you  simply  issue  more  requests  as  needed  (eg.  using  calls  like  nbd_aio_pread(3),
       nbd_aio_pwrite(3)) without waiting for previous commands to  complete.   You  need  to  be  careful  that
       requests  in  flight  do  not  overlap  with  disk  offsets  of  other write-like commands in flight — an
       overlapping read may see indeterminate data, and an overlapping write  may  even  cause  disk  corruption
       where the resulting disk contents do not match either of the two writes.

       Each request is identified by a unique 64 bit cookie (assigned by libnbd), allowing libnbd and callers to
       match replies to requests.  Replies may arrive out of order.

       Although  in theory you can have an indefinite number of requests in flight at the same time, in practice
       it's a good idea to limit them to some number.  Libnbd will queue commands  in  the  handle  even  if  it
       cannot write them to the server, so this limit is largely to prevent a backlog of commands from consuming
       too  much  memory.   It is suggested to start with a limit of 64 requests in flight (per NBD connection),
       and measure how adjusting the limit up and down affects performance for your local configuration.

       There    is    a    full    example    using     multiple     in-flight     requests     available     at
       https://github.com/libguestfs/libnbd/blob/master/examples/threaded-reads-and-writes.c

   Multi-conn
       Some  NBD  servers advertise “multi-conn” which means that it is safe to make multiple connections to the
       server and load-balance commands across all of the connections.

       To  do  this  you  should  open  a  single  connection  first   and   test   for   this   feature   using
       nbd_can_multi_conn(3).  Without error handling it would look like this:

        struct nbd_handle *nbd[4];
        size_t i;
        bool supports_multi_conn;

        nbd[0] = nbd_create ();
        nbd_connect_tcp (nbd[0], "server", "10809");
        supports_multi_conn = nbd_can_multi_conn (nbd[0]) > 0;

       If multi-conn is supported then you can open further connections:

        if (supports_multi_conn) {
          for (i = 1; i <= 3; ++i) {
            nbd[i] = nbd_create ();
            nbd_connect_tcp (nbd[i], "server", "10809");
          }
        }

       If you are issuing multiple in-flight requests (see above) and limiting the number, then the limit should
       be applied to each individual NBD connection.

ENCRYPTION AND AUTHENTICATION

       The  NBD protocol and libnbd supports TLS (sometimes incorrectly called “SSL”) for encryption of the data
       stream and authentication  of  clients  and  servers.   Libnbd  defaults  to  TLS  disabled  for  maximum
       interoperability.  To enable it on a handle you must call nbd_set_tls(3) before connecting.

       To allow TLS, but fall back to unencrypted:

        nbd_set_tls (nbd, LIBNBD_TLS_ALLOW);

       Use nbd_get_tls_negotiated(3) to find out if TLS negotiation was successful.  Avoid "LIBNBD_TLS_ALLOW" if
       man-in-the-middle attacks are a concern.

       The most secure mode is to require TLS and fail to connect if the server does not support it:

        nbd_set_tls (nbd, LIBNBD_TLS_REQUIRE);

       It  may  also  be  necessary to verify that the server’s identity is correct.  For some servers it may be
       necessary to verify to the server that the client is permitted to connect.  This can be done using either
       X.509 certificates, or TLS Pre-Shared Keys (PSK).   Certificates  are  more  secure.   PSK  is  far  more
       convenient, but you must have an existing secure channel to distribute the keys.

   Setting up X.509 using system certificate authorities (CAs)
       This  is the default if you don’t call any other "nbd_set_tls_*" functions.  In this case the server must
       have a public (eg. HTTPS) certificate which can be verified against the CAs  registered  on  your  system
       (eg. under /etc/pki).

       To disable server name verification — which opens you up to a potential Man-In-The-Middle (MITM) attack —
       use:

        nbd_set_tls_verify_peer (nbd, false);

   Setting up an X.509 certificate authority (CA)
       You  can  set  up  your  own  CA  and  register  clients  and  servers with it, issuing client and server
       certificates which will reliably authenticate your clients and servers to each other.

       Doing this is described in detail in the nbdkit-tls(1) manual.  The only differences for libnbd are:

       •   Non-root certificates must be placed in "$HOME/.pki/libnbd/" or "$HOME/.config/pki/libnbd/"

       •   Libnbd reads client-cert.pem and client-key.pem (instead of server-cert.pem and server-key.pem).

       Once you have set up the directory containing the certificates, call:

        nbd_set_tls_certificates (nbd, "/path/to/directory");

   Setting up Pre-Shared Keys (PSK)
       TLS Pre-Shared Keys are a much more convenient method of setting up TLS, and more  appropriate  for  NBD,
       but you should have an existing secure method available to distribute the keys.  They are therefore ideal
       if you want to set up an NBD service as an adjunct to an existing secure REST API.

       Use psktool(1) to create a file of "username:key" pairs:

        psktool -u username -p keys.psk

       and pass this path to libnbd:

        nbd_set_tls_psk_file (nbd, "keys.psk");

       If necessary you may need to set the client username (otherwise libnbd will use your login name):

        nbd_set_tls_username (nbd, "username");

CALLBACKS

       Some  libnbd  calls  take  callbacks  (eg. nbd_set_debug_callback(3), nbd_aio_pread(3)).  Libnbd can call
       these functions while processing.

       In the C API these libnbd calls take a structure which contains the  function  pointer  and  an  optional
       opaque "void *user_data" pointer:

        nbd_aio_pread (nbd, buf, sizeof buf, offset,
                       (nbd_completion_callback) { .callback = my_fn,
                                                   .user_data = my_data },
                       0);

       For  optional  callbacks,  if  you  don't  want the callback, either set ".callback" to "NULL" or use the
       equivalent macros (such as "NBD_NULL_COMPLETION") defined in "libnbd.h":

        nbd_aio_pread (nbd, buf, sizeof buf, offset,
                       NBD_NULL_COMPLETION, 0);

       From other languages the structure and opaque pointer are not needed because  you  can  use  closures  to
       achieve the same effect.

   Callback lifetimes
       You  can  associate  an  optional  free function with callbacks.  Libnbd will call this function when the
       callback will not be called again by libnbd.

       This can be used to free associated "user_data".  For example:

        void *my_data = malloc (...);

        nbd_aio_pread_structured (nbd, buf, sizeof buf, offset,
                       (nbd_chunk_callback) { .callback = my_fn,
                                              .user_data = my_data,
                                              .free = free },
                       NBD_NULL_CALLBACK(completion),
                       0);

       will call free(3) on "my_data" after the last time that the "chunk.callback = my_fn" function is called.

       The free function is only accessible in the C API as it is not needed in  garbage  collected  programming
       languages.

   Callbacks with ".callback=NULL" and ".free!=NULL"
       It is possible to register a callback like this:

         ...
           (nbd_completion_callback) { .callback = NULL,
                                       .user_data = my_data,
                                       .free = free },
         ...

       The meaning of this is that the callback is never called, but the free function is still called after the
       last  time the callback would have been called.  This is useful for applying generic freeing actions when
       asynchronous commands are retired.

   Callbacks and locking
       The callbacks are invoked at a point where the libnbd lock is  held;  as  such,  it  is  unsafe  for  the
       callback to call any "nbd_*" APIs on the same nbd object, as it would cause deadlock.

   Completion callbacks
       All  of the low-level commands have a completion callback variant that registers a callback function used
       right before the command is marked complete.

       When the completion callback returns 1, the command is automatically retired (there is no  need  to  call
       nbd_aio_command_completed(3)); for any other return value, the command still needs to be retired.

   Callbacks with "int *error" parameter
       Some  of  the  high-level  commands  (nbd_pread_structured(3),  nbd_block_status(3)) involve the use of a
       callback function invoked by the state machine at appropriate points in the  server's  reply  before  the
       overall  command  is  complete.   These  callback  functions, along with all of the completion callbacks,
       include a parameter "error" containing the value of any error detected so far; if the  callback  function
       fails,  it  should  assign back into "error" and return "-1" to change the resulting error of the overall
       command.  Assignments into "error" are ignored for any other return value; similarly,  assigning  0  into
       "error" does not have an effect.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

       "HOME"
           Used in some situations to find TLS certificates.  See nbd_set_tls_certificates(3).

       "LIBNBD_DEBUG"
           If  this  is  set  to  the  exact string 1 when the handle is created then debugging is enabled.  See
           "DEBUGGING MESSAGES" above.

       "LOGNAME"
           The default TLS username.  See nbd_set_tls_username(3).

SEE ALSO

   C API
       nbd_add_meta_context(3),   nbd_aio_block_status(3),    nbd_aio_cache(3),    nbd_aio_command_completed(3),
       nbd_aio_connect(3),                 nbd_aio_connect_command(3),                nbd_aio_connect_socket(3),
       nbd_aio_connect_systemd_socket_activation(3),      nbd_aio_connect_tcp(3),       nbd_aio_connect_unix(3),
       nbd_aio_connect_uri(3),      nbd_aio_connect_vsock(3),      nbd_aio_disconnect(3),      nbd_aio_flush(3),
       nbd_aio_get_direction(3),      nbd_aio_get_fd(3),       nbd_aio_in_flight(3),       nbd_aio_is_closed(3),
       nbd_aio_is_connecting(3),     nbd_aio_is_created(3),     nbd_aio_is_dead(3),    nbd_aio_is_processing(3),
       nbd_aio_is_ready(3), nbd_aio_notify_read(3), nbd_aio_notify_write(3),  nbd_aio_peek_command_completed(3),
       nbd_aio_pread(3),   nbd_aio_pread_structured(3),   nbd_aio_pwrite(3),  nbd_aio_trim(3),  nbd_aio_zero(3),
       nbd_block_status(3),     nbd_cache(3),     nbd_can_cache(3),     nbd_can_df(3),     nbd_can_fast_zero(3),
       nbd_can_flush(3),   nbd_can_fua(3),   nbd_can_meta_context(3),   nbd_can_multi_conn(3),  nbd_can_trim(3),
       nbd_can_zero(3),        nbd_clear_debug_callback(3),        nbd_close(3),         nbd_connect_command(3),
       nbd_connect_socket(3), nbd_connect_systemd_socket_activation(3), nbd_connect_tcp(3), nbd_connect_unix(3),
       nbd_connect_uri(3),    nbd_connect_vsock(3),    nbd_connection_state(3),   nbd_create(3),   nbd_flush(3),
       nbd_get_debug(3),  nbd_get_errno(3),  nbd_get_error(3),  nbd_get_export_name(3),  nbd_get_handle_name(3),
       nbd_get_handshake_flags(3),                 nbd_get_package_name(3),                 nbd_get_protocol(3),
       nbd_get_request_structured_replies(3),     nbd_get_size(3),     nbd_get_structured_replies_negotiated(3),
       nbd_get_tls(3),     nbd_get_tls_negotiated(3),    nbd_get_tls_username(3),    nbd_get_tls_verify_peer(3),
       nbd_get_version(3),  nbd_is_read_only(3),  nbd_is_rotational(3),   nbd_kill_subprocess(3),   nbd_poll(3),
       nbd_pread(3),   nbd_pread_structured(3),   nbd_pwrite(3),   nbd_set_debug(3),  nbd_set_debug_callback(3),
       nbd_set_export_name(3),                nbd_set_handle_name(3),                nbd_set_handshake_flags(3),
       nbd_set_request_structured_replies(3),            nbd_set_tls(3),            nbd_set_tls_certificates(3),
       nbd_set_tls_psk_file(3),               nbd_set_tls_username(3),               nbd_set_tls_verify_peer(3),
       nbd_set_uri_allow_local_file(3),        nbd_set_uri_allow_tls(3),        nbd_set_uri_allow_transports(3),
       nbd_shutdown(3), nbd_supports_tls(3), nbd_supports_uri(3), nbd_trim(3), nbd_zero(3).

   Servers
       nbdkit(1), nbd-server(1), qemu-nbd(8).

   Encryption tools
       certtool(1), nbdkit-tls(1), psktool(1).

   Standards
       https://github.com/NetworkBlockDevice/nbd/blob/master/doc/proto.md,
       https://github.com/NetworkBlockDevice/nbd/blob/master/doc/uri.md.

   Other
       libnbd-release-notes-1.2(1), libnbd-security(3), nbdfuse(1), nbdsh(1), qemu(1).

AUTHORS

       Eric Blake

       Richard W.M. Jones

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright (C) 2019 Red Hat Inc.

LICENSE

       This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU Lesser
       General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License,  or
       (at your option) any later version.

       This  library  is  distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even
       the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU Lesser  General
       Public License for more details.

       You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public License along with this library; if not,
       write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA

libnbd-1.2.2                                       2020-02-25                                          libnbd(3)