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Updated: July 2017
 
 

sg_requests (1m)

Name

sg_requests - send one or more SCSI REQUEST SENSE commands

Synopsis

sg_requests   [--desc]   [--help]  [--hex]  [--maxlen=LEN]  [--num=NUM]
[--progress] [--raw] [--status] [--time] [--verbose] [--version] DEVICE

Description

SG_REQUESTS(8)                     SG3_UTILS                    SG_REQUESTS(8)



NAME
       sg_requests - send one or more SCSI REQUEST SENSE commands

SYNOPSIS
       sg_requests   [--desc]   [--help]  [--hex]  [--maxlen=LEN]  [--num=NUM]
       [--progress] [--raw] [--status] [--time] [--verbose] [--version] DEVICE

DESCRIPTION
       Send SCSI REQUEST SENSE command to DEVICE and output the parameter data
       response  which  is expected to be in sense data format. Both fixed and
       descriptor sense data formats are supported.

       Multiple REQUEST SENSE commands can be sent with the --num=NUM  option.
       This can be used for timing purposes or monitoring the progress indica-
       tion.

OPTIONS
       Arguments to long options are mandatory for short options as well.

       -d, --desc
              sets the DESC bit in the REQUEST  SENSE  SCSI  cdb.  The  DEVICE
              should  return sense data in descriptor (rather than fixed) for-
              mat. This will only occur if the  DEVICE  recognizes  descriptor
              format  (SPC-3  and later). If the device is pre SPC-3 then set-
              ting a bit in a reserved field may cause a check condition  sta-
              tus  with  an illegal request sense key, but will most likely be
              ignored.

       -h, --help
              output the usage message then exit.

       -H, --hex
              output response in ASCII hexadecimal.

       -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. The maximum value of LEN  is  255
              (but SPC-4 recommends 252).

       -n, --num=NUM
              perform  NUM  SCSI  REQUEST SENSE commands, stopping when either
              NUM is reached or an error occurs. The default value for NUM  is
              1 .

       -p, --progress
              show  progress indication (a percentage) if available. If --num-
              ber=NUM is given, NUM is greater than 1 and an initial  progress
              indication  was  detected  then  this  utility  waits 30 seconds
              before subsequent checks.  Exits when NUM is  reached  or  there
              are  no  more  progress  indications.   Ignores --hex, --raw and
              --time options. See NOTES section below.

       -r, --raw
              output response in binary (to stdout).

       -s, --status
              if the REQUEST SENSE command finished without  error  (as  indi-
              cated  by  its  SCSI  status) then the contents of the parameter
              data are analysed as sense data  and  the  exit  status  is  set
              accordingly.  The  default  action (i.e. when this option is not
              given) is to ignore the contents of the parameter data  for  the
              purposes  of setting the exit status.  Some types of error set a
              sense key of "NO SENSE" with non-zero information in  the  addi-
              tional   sense  code  (e.g.  the  FAILURE  PREDICTION  THRESHOLD
              EXCEEDED group of codes); this results in an exit  status  value
              of  10. If the sense key is "NO SENSE" and both asc and ascq are
              zero then the exit status is set to 0 . See the sg3_utils(8) man
              page for exit status values.

       -t, --time
              time the SCSI REQUEST SENSE command(s) and calculate the average
              number of operations per second.

       -v, --verbose
              increase the level of verbosity, (i.e. debug output).  Addition-
              ally the response (if received) is output in ASCII-HEX. Use this
              option multiple times for greater verbosity.

       -V, --version
              print the version string and then exit.


ATTRIBUTES
       See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:


       +---------------+--------------------------+
       |ATTRIBUTE TYPE |     ATTRIBUTE VALUE      |
       +---------------+--------------------------+
       |Availability   | system/storage/sg3_utils |
       +---------------+--------------------------+
       |Stability      | Uncommitted              |
       +---------------+--------------------------+
NOTES
       In SCSI 1 and 2 the REQUEST SENSE command was very important for  error
       and  warning processing in SCSI. The autosense capability rendered this
       command almost superfluous.

       However recent SCSI drafts  (e.g.  SPC-4  rev  14  and  SBC-3  rev  14)
       increase  the  utility  of  the REQUEST SENSE command. Idle and standby
       (low) power conditions can be detected with this command.

       The REQUEST SENSE command is not marked as mandatory in SPC-3 (i.e. for
       all SCSI devices) but is marked as mandatory in SBC-2 (i.e. for disks),
       SSC-3 (i.e. for tapes) and MMC-4 (i.e. for CD/DVD/HD-DVD/BD drives).

       The progress indication is optionally part of the sense  data.  When  a
       prior  command  that  takes a long time to complete (and typically pre-
       cludes other media access commands) is  still  underway,  the  progress
       indication  can be used to determine how long before the device returns
       to its normal state.

       The SCSI FORMAT command for disks used with the IMMED  bit  set  is  an
       example  of  an  operation  that takes a significant amount of time and
       precludes other media access  during  that  time.  The  IMMED  bit  set
       instructs  the  FORMAT  command  to  return  control to the application
       client once the format has commenced (see SBC-3). Several long duration
       SCSI commands associated with tape drives also use the progress indica-
       tion (see SSC-3).

       Early standards suggested that the SCSI TEST UNIT READY command be used
       for polling the progress indication. More recent standards seem to sug-
       gest the SCSI REQUEST SENSE command should be used instead.

EXIT STATUS
       The exit status of sg_requests is 0 when it  is  successful.  Otherwise
       see the sg3_utils(8) man page.

AUTHORS
       Written by Douglas Gilbert.

REPORTING BUGS
       Report bugs to <dgilbert at interlog dot com>.

COPYRIGHT
       Copyright (C) 2004-2008 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
       sg3_utils


       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-1.26                    April 2008                    SG_REQUESTS(8)