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NAME

       scsiinfo - query information from a scsi device

SYNOPSIS

       scsiinfo [-options...] [device]

DESCRIPTION

       scsiinfo  queries information from an scsi target. This means generally
       using the INQUIRY scsi command or reading out SCSI-II mode  pages  (the
       number  of  the  mode  pages  and corresponding sections of the SCSI-II
       sections is given below). It  allows  also  to  modify  some  of  these
       settings on the scsi device (if it supports it).

       Except  for  the  -v  and  -l options you must specify exactly one scsi
       device to work on. You may specify any linux scsi  device  disk,  tape,
       cdrom, generic scsi.

       Some  scsi  devices (typically non removable disks) will allow to store
       your modifications in some non volatile memory. Some of these  settings
       (for  example  those  dealing  with  the  layout  of logical blocks and
       sectors set aside as replacements for erroneous  blocks)  might  render
       the disk unusable until a low level format.

OPTIONS

   Information available from most SCSI devices (includes SCSI-I)
       -i     display all information from the INQUIRY scsi command.

       -s     displays  the unit serial number using the INQUIRY scsi command.

       -d     display factory and grown  defect  lists  (typically  for  disks
              only).

              It is currently only possible to return defect information up to
              4096 bytes. Longer defect lists  are  truncated.  See  the  BUGS
              section.

       -f arg specify  the  format  in which to return the defect information.
              The target may decide to fail reporting  defect  information  in
              unsupported  formats  or  decide  to  return data in a different
              format.  scsiinfo supports all SCSI-II specified defect formats:

              -Flogical
                     logical  blocks. Use of this format is discouraged as the
                     assignment of logical blocks varies according  to  format
                     parameters  and  status  of  the defect list, hence is no
                     unique specification of defects.

              -Fphysical
                     physical  blocks.  Return  defect  as   cylinder,   head,
                     physical sector triples.

              -Findex
                     defect  bytes  from  index.   Return  defect as cylinder,
                     head, byte offset from index. The SCSI-II standard is not
                     very clear on this to me. It is unclear to me if there is
                     a single bad byte, this offset away from the  index  hole
                     on  the disk (this is only figuratively, there won’t be a
                     hole as used to be on 5 1/4" floppy  disks),  or  if  all
                     bytes  from  the index to this position are considered to
                     be bad.

   SCSI-II mode pages
       -C     displays information from Control Mode Page.  (Page 0Ah, section
              7.3.3.1)

       -D     displays information from Disconnect-Reconnect Page.  (Page 02h,
              section 7.3.3.2)

       -p     displays information from Peripheral Device  Page.   (Page  09h,
              section 7.3.3.3)

       -c     displays  information  from  Caching  Page.   (Page 08h, section
              8.3.3.1)

       -f     displays  information  from  Format  Device  Page.   (Page  03h,
              section 8.3.3.3)

       -n     displays  information from Notch and Partition Page.  (Page 0Ch,
              section 8.3.3.5)

              A huge scsi disk might be divided into  several  notches.  These
              are  regions  of  logical  blocks or cylinders on the disk. Each
              such notch might have different values for the other mode pages.

              Typically  a modern disk will have several notches and have more
              sectors per track on the inner tracks/notches on  the  disk  and
              more  sectors per track on the outer (longer) tracks for optimal
              capacity. Also different amounts of reserved backup sectors  may
              be available in the notches depending on their capacity.

       -e     displays  information  from  Error  Recovery  page.   (Page 01h,
              section 8.3.3.6)

       -g     displays information from Rigid Disk Drive Geometry Page.  (Page
              04h, section 8.3.3.7)

       -V     displays  information  from  Verify  Error Recovery Page.  (Page
              07h, section 8.3.3.8)

   Select mode page set
       By default the current settings are queried from the devices.  You  can
       however specify one of these:

       -M     displays manufacturer defaults instead of current values.

       -S     displays defaults saved in NVRAM instead of current values.

       -m     displays  modifiable  fields instead of current values (All bits
              set in modifiable fields).

   Miscellaneous
       -v     Show scsiinfo version.

       -vv    Dump sense buffer in case of error.

       -a     All of the above (expect listing defects).

       -l     List scsi devices known to the system.

       -L     List mode pages pages supported by  this  scsiinfo  version  and
              target (notched pages and active notch are also returned).

       -X     displays  output  suitable for the X-based interface. Instead of
              nice explanations, just the bare values are written to stdout.

       -R     Replace parameters. Use with -X and specify the values to set on
              the  command  line  in the order and format as -X uses to report
              them. (Expert use only,  definitely  use  the  Tcl/Tk  interface
              scsi-config(8)tomodifysettings.)

              Use this in conjunction with -S to modify the NVRAM settings.

       -X and -R can be used only with one of the display page options.

       -m and -M cannot be used with -R.

       You  may  use  -M,  -S  with -L though it will make no difference. As a
       special goodie when using -LXR then a  /bin/sh  script  is  written  to
       stdout  that  will  restore  the  current  settings  of the target when
       executed. You can use one of -M, -S with -LXR to save the corresponding
       values.

BUGS

       Restrictions  of  the  SCSI_IOCTL_SEND_COMMAND  ioctl(2)  call  make it
       impossible to send or receive more than 4096 bytes of  arguments.  This
       could  be  avoided  by  using  the  proper generic scsi device /dev/sg*
       instead, at least where the kernel is compiled to support it.  Most  of
       the  time  this  is not needed though and thus I’m myself to lazy to do
       it. It will basically just truncate the vendor specified primary defect
       lists. Thus I’m too lazy to fix it.

FILES

       /dev/sd*
       /dev/sg*
       /dev/scd*
       /dev/st*
       /dev/nst*
       /dev/rmt*
       /dev/nrmt*

SEE ALSO

       scsi-config(8), scsiformat(8), tk_scsiformat(8), fdisk(8), sd(4),

       Draft proposed
       American National Standard
       for information systems

       SMALL COMPUTER SYSTEM INTERFACE - 2
       (SCSI-2)

       MARCH 9, 1990

AUTHORS

       Eric Youngdale.
       Michael Weller <eowmob@exp-math.uni-essen.de>, Versions 1.5 & 1.7