sg_vpd - fetches Vital Product Data (VPD) pages using a SCSI INQUIRY command
sg_vpd [--enumerate] [--help] [--hex] [--ident] [--long] [--maxlen=LEN] [--page=PG] [--quiet] [--raw] [--verbose] [--version] DEVICE
SG_VPD(8) SG3_UTILS SG_VPD(8)
NAME
sg_vpd - fetches Vital Product Data (VPD) pages using a SCSI INQUIRY
command
SYNOPSIS
sg_vpd [--enumerate] [--help] [--hex] [--ident] [--long] [--maxlen=LEN]
[--page=PG] [--quiet] [--raw] [--verbose] [--version] DEVICE
DESCRIPTION
This utility fetches a Vital Product Data page and decodes it or out-
puts it in ASCII hexadecimal or binary. VPD pages are fetched with a
SCSI INQUIRY command.
Probably the most important page is the Device Identification VPD page
(page number: 0x83). Since SPC-3, support for this page has been
flagged as mandatory. This page can be fetched by using the --ident
option.
When no options are given, other than a DEVICE, then the "Supported VPD
pages" (0x0) VPD page is fetched and decoded.
OPTIONS
Arguments to long options are mandatory for short options as well. The
options are arranged in alphabetical order based on the long option
name.
-e, --enumerate
list the names of the known VPD pages, first the standard pages,
then the vendor specific pages. Each group is sorted in abbrevi-
ation order. The DEVICE and other options are ignored and this
utility exits after listing the VPD page names.
-h, --help
outputs the usage message summarizing command line options then
exits. Ignores DEVICE if given.
-H, --hex
outputs the requested VPD page in ASCII hexadecimal. Can be used
multiple times, see section on the ATA information vpd page.
-i, --ident
decode the device identification (0x83) VPD page. When used once
this option has the same effect as '--page=di'. When use twice
then the short form of the device identification VPD page's log-
ical unit designator is decoded. In the latter case this option
has the same effect as '--quiet --page=di_lu'.
-l, --long
when decoding some VPD pages, give a little more output. For
example the ATA Information VPD page only shows the signature
(in hex) and the IDENTIFY (PACKET) DEVICE (in hex) when this
option is given.
-m, --maxlen=LEN
where LEN is the (maximum) response length in bytes. It is
placed in the cdb's "allocation length" field. If not given (or
LEN is zero) then 252 is used (apart from the ATA Information
VPD page which defaults to 572) and, if the response indicates
this value is insufficient, another INQUIRY command is sent with
a larger value in the cdb's "allocation length" field. If this
option is given and LEN is greater than 0 then only one INQUIRY
command is sent. Since many simple devices implement the INQUIRY
command badly (and do not support VPD pages) then the safest
value to use for LEN is 36. See the sg_inq man page for the more
information.
-p, --page=PG
where PG is the VPD page to be decoded or output. The PG argu-
ment can either be an abbreviation, a number or a pair or num-
bers separated by a comma. The VPD page abbreviations can be
seen by using the --enumerate option. If a number is given it is
assumed to be decimal unless it has a hexadecimal indicator
which is either a leading '0x' or a trailing 'h'. If one number
is given then it is assumed to be a VPD page number. If two num-
bers are given the second number indicates which vendor specific
VPD page to decode when several pages share the same VPD page
number. If this option is not given (nor '-i', '-l' nor '-V')
then the "Supported VPD pages" (0x0) VPD page is fetched and
decoded. If PG is '-1' or 'sinq' then the standard INQUIRY
response is output.
-q, --quiet
suppress the amount of decoding output.
-r, --raw
output requested VPD page in binary. The output should be piped
to a file or another utility when this option is used. The
binary is sent to stdout, and errors are sent to stderr.
-v, --verbose
increases the level or verbosity.
-V, --version
print out version string then exit.
ATA INFORMATION VPD PAGE
This VPD page (0x89 or 'ai') is defined by the SCSI to ATA Translation
standard. It contains information about the SAT layer, the "signature"
of the ATA device and the response to the ATA IDENTIFY (PACKET) DEVICE
command. The latter part has 512 bytes of identity, capability and set-
tings data which the hdparm utility is capable of decoding (so this
utility doesn't decode it).
To unclutter the output for this page, the signature and the IDENTIFY
(PACKET) DEVICE response are not output unless the --long option (or
--hex or --raw) are given. When the --long option is given the IDENTIFY
(PACKET) DEVICE response is output as 256 (16 bit) words as is the
fashion for ATA devices. To see that response as a string of bytes use
the '-HH' option. To format the output suitable for hdparm to decode
use either the '-HHH' or '-rr' option. For example if 'dev/sdb' is a
SATA disk behind a SAT layer then this command: 'sg_vpd -p ai -HHH
/dev/sdb | hdparm --Istdin' should decode the ATA IDENTIFY (PACKET)
DEVICE response.
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:
+---------------+--------------------------+
|ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
+---------------+--------------------------+
|Availability | system/storage/sg3_utils |
+---------------+--------------------------+
|Stability | Uncommitted |
+---------------+--------------------------+
NOTES
Since some VPD pages (e.g. the Extended INQUIRY page) depend on set-
tings in the standard INQUIRY response, then the standard INQUIRY
response is output as a pseudo VPD page when PG is set to '-1' or
'sinq'. Also the decoding of some fields (e.g. the Extended INQUIRY
page's SPT field) is expanded when the '--long' option is given using
the standard INQUIRY response information (e.g. the PDT and the PROTECT
fields).
In the 2.4 series of Linux kernels the DEVICE must be a SCSI generic
(sg) device. In the 2.6 series block devices (e.g. disks and ATAPI
DVDs) can also be specified. For example "sg_inq /dev/sda" will work in
the 2.6 series kernels. From lk 2.6.6 other SCSI "char" device names
may be used as well (e.g. "/dev/st0m").
EXIT STATUS
The exit status of sg_vpd is 0 when it is successful. Otherwise see the
sg3_utils(8) man page.
EXAMPLES
The examples in this page use Linux device names. For suitable device
names in other supported Operating Systems see the sg3_utils(8) man
page.
To see the VPD pages that a device supports, use with no options. The
command line invocation is shown first followed by a typical response:
# sg_vpd /dev/sdb
Supported VPD pages VPD page:
Supported VPD pages [sv]
Unit serial number [sn]
Device identification [di]
Extended inquiry data [ei]
Block limits (SBC) [bl]
To see the VPD page numbers associated with each supported page then
add the '--long' option to the above command line. To view a VPD page
either its number or abbreviation can be given to the '--page=' option.
The page name abbreviations are shown within square brackets above. In
the next example the Extended inquiry data VPD page is listed:
# sg_vpd --page=ei /dev/sdb
extended INQUIRY data VPD page:
ACTIVATE_MICROCODE=0 SPT=0 GRD_CHK=0 APP_CHK=0 REF_CHK=0
UASK_SUP=0 GROUP_SUP=0 PRIOR_SUP=0 HEADSUP=1 ORDSUP=1 SIMPSUP=1
WU_SUP=0 CRD_SUP=0 NV_SUP=0 V_SUP=0
P_I_I_SUP=0 LUICLR=0 R_SUP=0 CBCS=0
Multi I_T nexus microcode download=0
Extended self-test completion minutes=0
POA_SUP=0 HRA_SUP=0 VSA_SUP=0
Further examples can be found on the
http://sg.danny.cz/sg/sg3_utils.html web page.
AUTHOR
Written by Doug Gilbert
REPORTING BUGS
Report bugs to <dgilbert at interlog dot com>.
COPYRIGHT
Copyright (C) 2006-2011 Douglas Gilbert
This software is distributed under a FreeBSD license. There is NO war-
ranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PUR-
POSE.
SEE ALSO
sg_inq(sg3_utils), sg3_utils(sg3_utils), sdparm(sdparm), hdparm(hdparm)
This software was built from source available at
https://java.net/projects/solaris-userland. The original community
source was downloaded from http://sg.danny.cz/sg/p/sg3_utils-1.33.tgz
Further information about this software can be found on the open source
community website at http://sg.danny.cz/sg/sg3_utils.html.
sg3_utils-1.33 October 2011 SG_VPD(8)