+// ==============================
+// GetBlock and PutBlock implement lower-level code for handling
+// blocks by rooting through volumes connected to the local machine.
+// Once the handler has determined that system policy permits the
+// request, it calls these methods to perform the actual operation.
+//
+// TODO(twp): this code would probably be better located in the
+// VolumeManager interface. As an abstraction, the VolumeManager
+// should be the only part of the code that cares about which volume a
+// block is stored on, so it should be responsible for figuring out
+// which volume to check for fetching blocks, storing blocks, etc.
+
+// ==============================
+// GetBlock fetches and returns the block identified by "hash". If
+// the update_timestamp argument is true, GetBlock also updates the
+// block's file modification time (for the sake of PutBlock, which
+// must update the file's timestamp when the block already exists).
+//
+// On success, GetBlock returns a byte slice with the block data, and
+// a nil error.
+//
+// If the block cannot be found on any volume, returns NotFoundError.
+//
+// If the block found does not have the correct MD5 hash, returns
+// DiskHashError.
+//
+
+func GetBlock(hash string, update_timestamp bool) ([]byte, error) {