NAME
sg_raw - sends an arbitrary SCSI command to a device
SYNOPSIS
sg_raw [OPTIONS] DEVICE CDB0 CDB1 ...
DESCRIPTION
This utility sends an arbitrary SCSI command (between 6 and 256 bytes)
to the DEVICE. There may be no associated data transfer; or data may be
read from a file and sent to the DEVICE; or data may be received from
the DEVICE and then displayed or written to a file.
The SCSI command may be between 6 and 256 bytes long. Each command byte
is specified in plain hex format (00..FF) without a prefix or suffix.
See EXAMPLES section below.
The commands pass through a generic SCSI interface which is implemented
for several operating systems including Linux, FreeBSD and Windows.
OPTIONS
Arguments to long options are mandatory for short options as well.
-b, --binary
Dump data in binary form, even when writing to stdout.
-h, --help
Display usage information and exit.
-i, --infile=IFILE
Read data from IFILE instead of stdin. This option is ignored if
--send is not specified.
-k, --skip=LEN
Skip the first LEN bytes of the input file or stream. This
option is ignored if --send is not specified.
-n, --nosense
Don’t display SCSI Sense information.
-o, --outfile=OFILE
Write data received from the DEVICE to OFILE. The data is
written in binary. By default, data is dumped in hex format to
stdout. If OFILE is ’-’ then data is dumped in binary to
stdout. This option is ignored if --request is not specified.
-r, --request=RLEN
Expect to receive up to RLEN bytes of data from the DEVICE.
RLEN may be suffixed with ’k’ to use kilobytes (1024 bytes)
instead of bytes. This option and --send are mutually exclusive.
-s, --send=SLEN
Read SLEN bytes of data, either from stdin or from a file, and
send them to the DEVICE. This option and --request are mutually
exclusive.
-t, --timeout=SEC
Wait up to SEC seconds for command completion (default: 20).
Note that if a command times out the operating system may start
by aborting the command and if that is unsuccessful it may
attempt to reset the device.
-v, --verbose
Increase level of verbosity. Can be used multiple times.
-V, --version
Display version and license information and exit.
NOTES
The sg_inq utility can be used to send an INQUIRY command to a device
to determine its peripheral device type (e.g. ’1’ for a streaming
device (tape drive)) which determines which SCSI command sets a device
should support (e.g. SPC and SSC). The sg_vpd utility probes the Vital
Product Pages of a devices which may contain useful information.
The ability to send more than a 16 byte CDB (in some cases 12 byte CDB)
may be restricted by the pass-through interface, the low level driver
or the transport. Bidirectional data commands are no yet supported.
EXAMPLES
sg_raw /dev/scd0 1b 00 00 00 02 00
Eject the medium in CD drive /dev/scd0.
sg_raw -r 1k /dev/sg0 12 00 00 00 60 00
Perform an INQUIRY on /dev/sg0 and dump the response data (up to
1024 bytes) to stdout.
sg_raw -s 512 -i i512.bin /dev/sda 3b 02 00 00 00 00 00 02 00 00
Showing an example of writing 512 bytes to a sector on a disk is
a little dangerous. Instead this example will read i512.bin
(assumed to be 512 bytes long) and use the SCSI WRITE BUFFER
command to send it to the "data" buffer (that is mode 2). This
is a safe operation.
sg_raw -r 512 -o o512.bin /dev/sda 3c 02 00 00 00 00 00 02 00 00
This will use the SCSI READ BUFFER command to read 512 bytes
from the "data" buffer (i.e. mode 2) then write it to the
o512.bin file. When used in conjunction with the previous
example, if both commands work then ’cmp i512.bin o512.bin’
should show a match.
sg_raw.exe PhysicalDrive1 a1 0c 0e 00 00 00 00 00 00 e0 00 00
This example is from Windows and shows a ATA STANDBY IMMEDIATE
command being sent to PhysicalDrive1. That ATA command is
contained within the SCSI ATA PASS-THROUGH(12) command (see the
SAT or SAT-2 standard at http://www.t10.org). Notice that the
STANDBY IMMEDIATE command does not send or receive any
additional data, however if it fails sense data should be
returned and displayed.
EXIT STATUS
The exit status of sg_raw is 0 when it is successful. Otherwise see the
sg3_utils(8) man page.
AUTHOR
Written by Ingo van Lil
REPORTING BUGS
Report bugs to <inguin at gmx dot de>.
COPYRIGHT
Copyright © 2001-2009 Ingo van Lil
This software is distributed under the GPL version 2. There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
PURPOSE.
SEE ALSO
sg_inq sg_vpd(sg3_utils), plscsi