diff --git a/drivers/block/rbd.c b/drivers/block/rbd.c
index 89576a0b3f2ed5b099ecf7ce675104d282b0dd48..128978c6a4e0f53bd8d5b7a36ea82fe733d3e037 100644
--- a/drivers/block/rbd.c
+++ b/drivers/block/rbd.c
@@ -119,7 +119,26 @@ struct rbd_image_header {
  * An rbd image specification.
  *
  * The tuple (pool_id, image_id, snap_id) is sufficient to uniquely
- * identify an image.
+ * identify an image.  Each rbd_dev structure includes a pointer to
+ * an rbd_spec structure that encapsulates this identity.
+ *
+ * Each of the id's in an rbd_spec has an associated name.  For a
+ * user-mapped image, the names are supplied and the id's associated
+ * with them are looked up.  For a layered image, a parent image is
+ * defined by the tuple, and the names are looked up.
+ *
+ * An rbd_dev structure contains a parent_spec pointer which is
+ * non-null if the image it represents is a child in a layered
+ * image.  This pointer will refer to the rbd_spec structure used
+ * by the parent rbd_dev for its own identity (i.e., the structure
+ * is shared between the parent and child).
+ *
+ * Since these structures are populated once, during the discovery
+ * phase of image construction, they are effectively immutable so
+ * we make no effort to synchronize access to them.
+ *
+ * Note that code herein does not assume the image name is known (it
+ * could be a null pointer).
  */
 struct rbd_spec {
 	u64		pool_id;