Ubuntu Manpage: sg_write_and_verify - send the SCSI WRITE AND VERIFY command

Provided by: sg3-utils_1.46-1ubuntu0.22.04.1_amd64

NAME

       sg_write_and_verify - send the SCSI WRITE AND VERIFY command

SYNOPSIS

       sg_write_verify [--16] [--bytchk=BC] [--dpo] [--group=GN] [--help] [--ilen=ILEN] [--in=IF]
       --lba=LBA [--num=NUM] [--repeat] [--timeout=TO] [--verbose]  [--version]  [--wrprotect=WP]
       DEVICE

DESCRIPTION

Send a SCSI WRITE AND VERIFY (10) or (16) command to DEVICE. The data to be written is
read from the IF file or, in its absence, a buffer full of 0xff bytes is used. The length
of the data-out buffer sent with the command is ILEN bytes or, if that is not given, then
it is the length of the IF file.

The write operation is to the DEVICE's medium (optionally to its cache) starting at
logical block address LBA for NUM logical blocks. After the write to medium is performed
a verify operation takes place which may viewed as a medium read (with appropriate checks)
but without the data being returned. Additionally, if BS is set to one, the data read back
from the medium in the verify operation is compared to the original data-out buffer.

The relationship between the number of logical blocks to be written (i.e. NUM) and the
length (in bytes) of the data-out buffer (i.e. ILEN) may be simply found by multiplying
the former by the logical block size. However if the DEVICE has protection information
(PI) then it becomes a bit more complicated. Hence the calculation is left to the user
with the default ILEN, in the absence of the IF file, being set to NUM * 512.

For sending large amounts of data to contiguous logical blocks, a single WRITE AND VERIFY
command may not be appropriate (e.g. due to operating system limitations). In such cases
see the REPEAT section below.

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.

-S, --16
Send a WRITE AND VERIFY(16) command. The default is to send a WRITE AND VERIFY(10)
command unless LBA or NUM are too large for the 10 byte variant.

-b, --bytchk=BC
where BC is the value to place in the command's BYTCHK field. Values between 0 and
3 (inclusive) are accepted. The default is value is 0 which implies only a write to
the medium then a verify operation are performed. The only other value T10 defines
currently is 1 which does performs an additional comparison between the data-out
buffer that was used by the write operation and the contents of the logical blocks
read back from the medium.

-d, --dpo
Set the DPO (disable page out) bit in the command. The default is to leave it
clear.

-g, --group=GN
where GN is the value to place in the command's GROUP NUMBER field. Values between
0 and 31 (inclusive) are accepted. The default is value is 0.

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

-I, --ilen=ILEN
where ILEN is the number of bytes that will be placed in the data-out buffer. If
the IF file is given then no more than ILEN bytes are read from that file. If the
IF file does not contain ILEN bytes then an error is reported. If the IF file is
not given then a data-out buffer with ILEN bytes of 0xff is sent.

-i, --in=IF
read data (binary) from file named IF. If IF is "-" then stdin is used. This data
will become the data-out buffer and will be written to the DEVICE's medium. If BC
is 1 then that data-out buffer will be held until after the verify operation and
compared to the data read back from the medium.

-l, --lba=LBA
where LBA is the logical block address to start the write to medium. Assumed to be
in decimal unless prefixed with '0x' or has a trailing 'h'. Must be provided.

-n, --num=NUM
where NUM is the number of blocks, starting at LBA, to write to the medium. The
default value for NUM is 1.

-R, --repeat
this option will continue to do WRITE AND VERIFY commands until the IF file is
exhausted. This option requires both the --ilen=ILEN and --in=IF options to be
given. Each command starts at the next logical block address and is for no more
than NUM blocks. The last command may be shorter with the number of blocks scaled
as required. If there are residue bytes a warning is sent to stderr. See the REPEAT
section.

-t, --timeout=TO
where TO is the command timeout value in seconds. The default value is 60 seconds.
If NUM is large then command may require considerably more time than 60 seconds to
complete.

-v, --verbose
increase the degree of verbosity (debug messages).

-V, --version
output version string then exit.

-w, --wrprotect=WP
set the WRPROTECT field in the cdb to WP. The default value is 0 which implies no
protection information is sent (along with the user data) in the data-out buffer.

REPEAT

       For  data  sizes around a megabyte and larger, it may be appropriate to send multiple SCSI
       WRITE AND VERIFY commands due to operating  system  limitations  (e.g.  pass-through  SCSI
       interfaces  often  limit  the amount of data that can be passed with a SCSI command). With
       this utility the mechanism for doing that is the --repeat option.

       In this mode the --ilen=ILEN and --in=IF options must be given. The ILEN  and  NUM  values
       are  treated  as  a per SCSI command parameters. Up to ILEN bytes will be read from the IF
       file continually until it is exhausted. If the IF file is stdin, reading  continues  until
       an  EOF  is  detected. The data read from each iteration becomes the data-out buffer for a
       new WRITE AND VERIFY command.

       The last read from the file (or stdin) may read less than ILEN bytes  in  which  case  the
       number  of logical blocks sent to the last WRITE AND VERIFY is scaled back accordingly. If
       there is a residual number of bytes left after that  scaling  then  that  is  reported  to
       stderr.

       If an error occurs then that is reported to stderr and via the exit status and the utility
       stops at that point.

NOTES

       Other SCSI WRITE commands have a Force Unit Access (FUA) bit but that is set  (implicitly)
       by  WRITE  AND VERIFY commands hence there is no option to set it. The data-out buffer may
       still additionally be placed in the DEVICE's cache and setting the DPO bit is a  hint  not
       to do that.

       Normal  SCSI WRITEs can be done with the ddpt and the sg_dd utilities. The SCSI WRITE SAME
       command can be done with the sg_write_same  utility  while  the  SCSI  COMPARE  AND  WRITE
       command (sg_compare_and_write utility) offers a "test and set" facility.

       Various  numeric  arguments  (e.g. LBA) may include multiplicative suffixes or be given in
       hexadecimal. See the "NUMERIC ARGUMENTS" section in the sg3_utils(8) man page.

EXIT STATUS

       The exit status of sg_write_verify is 0 when it is successful.  If  the  verify  operation
       fails that is typically indicated with a medium error which leads to an exit status of 3.

       If  BC  is  set  to  1  and  the comparison it causes fails this utility will indicate the
       miscompare with an exit status of 14. For other exit status values  see  the  EXIT  STATUS
       section in the sg3_utils(8) man page.

EXAMPLES

       To  start  with,  a  simple  example: write 1 block of data held in file t.bin that is 512
       bytes long then write that block to LBA 0x1234 on /dev/sg4 .

         # sg_write_verify --lba=0x1234 --in=t.bin /dev/sg4

       Since '--num=' is not given then it defaults to 1. Further the ILEN value is obtained from
       the file size of t.bin . To additionally do a data-out comparison to the read back data:

         # sg_write_verify -l 0x1234 -i t.bin --bytchk=1 /dev/sg4

       The  ddpt  command  can  do  copies  between  SCSI  devices using READ and WRITE commands.
       However, currently it has no  facility  to  promote  those  WRITES  to  WRITE  AND  VERIFY
       commands. Using a pipe, that could be done like this:

         # ddpt if=/dev/sg2 bs=512 bpt=8 count=11 of=- |
       sg_write_verify --in=- -l 0x567 -n 8 --ilen=4096 --repeat /dev/sg4

       Both  ddpt  and  sg_write_verify are configured for segments of 8 512 byte logical blocks.
       Since 11 logical blocks are read then first 8 logical blocks are copied followed by a copy
       of  the  remaining  3  blocks. Since it is assumed that there is no protection information
       then the data-in and data-out buffers will be 4096 bytes each.  For  sg_write_verify  this
       needs to be stated explicitly with the --ilen=4096 option.

AUTHORS

       Bruno Goncalves and Douglas Gilbert.

REPORTING BUGS

       Report bugs to <dgilbert at interlog dot com>.

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright © 2014-2018 Douglas Gilbert
       This  software  is distributed under a FreeBSD license. There is NO warranty; not even for
       MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.