Patchset API

How about batch_*()? Or wb_*() for writebatch? (I'm ignoring the "patch" word, since I find it far more confusing than enlightening.)

Will it always be write-specific? Would it ever be useful to say something like "read blocks A-D, but I'll need either both A and B or both C and D before I can make progress"? Something to do with RAID parity blocks, or quasi-realtime processing using memory that needs to be pinned but only while the process is scheduled or starts a pass, or maybe (ooh, here's a confusing one) when you want to read data from in-progress writes that are themselves being controlled by a dependency DAG? Or heck, maybe you're trying to read off of multiple devices and you only have enough power to spin up a subset at a time.

I guess I'm just making up bullshit.

Mmm. Bullshit and bikesheds. They go so well together, like chocolate and peanut butter. If you'll excuse the juxtaposition.