this adds a create option for Qcow2 images to specify the compression format and level for compressed clusters. The series adds 2 algorithms to choose from: zlib and lzo. zlib is the current default, but with unoptimal settings. If no compress.format option is specified the old zlib with the old parameters is used and the created images are backwards compatible with older QEMU version. As soon as a compression format is specified a new compress format header extension is written and the Qcow2 images are incompatible with older QEMU versions.
Some numbers for an uncompressed Debian 9 QCOW2 image (size 1148MB): compress.format compress time compressed size decompress time none 35.7s 339MB 3.4s zlib (default) 30.5s 320MB 3.2s zlib (level 1) 12.8s 348MB 3.2s lzo 4.2s 429MB 1.6s Changes V1->V2: - split the series into more patches - added an qapi scheme for the compression settings - renamed compression_algorithm to compress.format and added compress.level+ - updated the header extension to carry a variable extra payload and compress level. - removed extra reservations for header extensions - added missing lzo_init and fixed compress overhead for lzo Peter Lieven (8): docs: add compress format extension to qcow2 spec qapi: add compress parameters to Qcow2 Blockdev options block/qcow2: parse compress create options qemu-img: add documentation for compress settings block/qcow2: read and write the compress format extension block/qcow2: optimize qcow2_co_pwritev_compressed block/qcow2: start using the compress format extension block/qcow2: add lzo compress format block/qcow2-cluster.c | 73 +++++++++++----- block/qcow2.c | 219 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++------- block/qcow2.h | 33 +++++-- configure | 2 +- docs/interop/qcow2.txt | 43 ++++++++- include/block/block_int.h | 2 + qapi/block-core.json | 54 +++++++++++- qemu-img.texi | 22 +++++ 8 files changed, 384 insertions(+), 64 deletions(-) -- 1.9.1