在通用块层中，bio用来描述单一的I/O请求，它记录了一次I/O操作所必需的相关信息，如用于I/O操作的数据缓存位置，I/O操作的块设备起始扇区，是读操作还是写操作等等。struct bio的定义如下
struct bio {
sector_t bi_sector; /* device address in 512 byte
sectors */
struct bio *bi_next; /* request queue link */
struct block_device *bi_bdev;
unsigned long bi_flags; /* status, command, etc */
unsigned long bi_rw; /* bottom bits READ/WRITE,
* top bits priority
*/
unsigned short bi_vcnt; /* how many bio_vec's */
unsigned short bi_idx; /* current index into bvl_vec */
/* Number of segments in this BIO after
* physical address coalescing is performed.
*/
unsigned int bi_phys_segments;
unsigned int bi_size; /* residual I/O count */
/*
* To keep track of the max segment size, we account for the
* sizes of the first and last mergeable segments in this bio.
*/
unsigned int bi_seg_front_size;
unsigned int bi_seg_back_size;
unsigned int bi_max_vecs; /* max bvl_vecs we can hold */
unsigned int bi_comp_cpu; /* completion CPU */
atomic_t bi_cnt; /* pin count */
struct bio_vec *bi_io_vec; /* the actual vec list */
bio_end_io_t *bi_end_io;
void *bi_private;
#if defined(CONFIG_BLK_DEV_INTEGRITY)
struct bio_integrity_payload *bi_integrity; /* data integrity */
#endif
bio_destructor_t *bi_destructor; /* destructor */
/*
* We can inline a number of vecs at the end of the bio, to avoid
* double allocations for a small number of bio_vecs. This member
* MUST obviously be kept at the very end of the bio.
*/
struct bio_vec bi_inline_vecs[0];
};