-- fills the marked area, ignored objects are not affected
function io_area_fill (pos, ends, node, force, voxelmanip)
	local pos_start = {x = math.min(pos.x, ends.x) + 1, y = math.min(pos.y, ends.y) + 1, z = math.min(pos.z, ends.z) + 1}
	local pos_end = {x = math.max(pos.x, ends.x) - 1, y = math.max(pos.y, ends.y) - 1, z = math.max(pos.z, ends.z) - 1}

	-- create a vm if none is given
	local voxelmanip_this = {}
	if voxelmanip then
		voxelmanip_this = {vm = voxelmanip.vm, emin = voxelmanip.emin, emax = voxelmanip.emax, update = false}
	else
		voxelmanip_this = {vm = VoxelManip(), emin = pos_start, emax = pos_end, update = true}
	end

	local data = voxelmanip_this.vm:get_data()
	local area = VoxelArea:new{MinEdge = voxelmanip_this.emin, MaxEdge = voxelmanip_this.emax}
	local node_content = minetest.get_content_id(node)
	local node_air_content = minetest.get_content_id("air")

	-- set each node in the marked area
	for i in area:iterp(pos_start, pos_end) do
		if data[i] == node_air_content or force == true then
			data[i] = node_content
		end
	end

	-- write new vm data, preform updates here if we used a local vm
	voxelmanip_this.vm:set_data(data)
	voxelmanip_this.vm:write_to_map()
	if voxelmanip_this.update == true then
		io_vm_update(voxelmanip_this)
	end
end