Provided by: sg3-utils_1.36-1ubuntu1_amd64 
NAME
sg_inq - issue SCSI INQUIRY command, output and decode response
SYNOPSIS
sg_inq [--ata] [--cmddt] [--descriptors] [--export] [--extended] [--help] [--hex] [--id]
[--len=LEN] [--maxlen=LEN] [--page=PG] [--raw] [--vendor] [--verbose] [--version] [--vpd]
DEVICE
sg_inq [-36] [-a] [-A] [-b] [-c] [-cl] [-d] [-e] [-h] [-H] [-i] [-l=LEN] [-m] [-M]
[-o=OPCODE_PG] [-p=VPD_PG] [-P] [-r] [-s] [-u] [-v] [-V] [-x] [-36] [-?] DEVICE
DESCRIPTION
This utility by default sends a SCSI INQUIRY command to the given device and then outputs
the response. All SCSI devices are meant to respond to a "standard" INQUIRY command with
at least a 36 byte response (in SCSI 2 and higher). An INQUIRY is termed as "standard"
when both the EVPD and CmdDt (now obsolete) bits are clear.
This utility supports two command line syntaxes, the preferred one is shown first in the
synopsis and explained in this section. A later section on the old command line syntax
outlines the second group of options.
An important "non-standard" INQUIRY page is the Device Identification Vital Product Data
(VPD) page [0x83]. Since SPC-3, support for this page is mandatory. The --id option
decodes this page. New VPD page information is no longer being added to this utility. To
get information on new VPD pages see the sg_vpd(8) or sdparm(8) utilities.
If the DEVICE exists and the SCSI INQUIRY fails (because the SG_IO ioctl is not supported)
then an ATA IDENTIFY (PACKET) DEVICE is tried. If it succeeds then device identification
strings are output. The --raw and --hex options can be used to manipulate the output. If
the --ata option is given then the SCSI INQUIRY is not performed and the DEVICE is assumed
to be ATA (or ATAPI).
The reference document used for interpreting an INQUIRY is T10/1713-D Revision 36e (SPC-4,
24 August 2012) found at http://www.t10.org . Obsolete and reserved items in the standard
INQUIRY response output are displayed in brackets. The reference document for the ATA
IDENTIFY (PACKET) DEVICE command is ATA8-ACS found at http://www.t13.org .
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.
-a, --ata
Assume given DEVICE is an ATA or ATAPI device which can receive ATA commands from
the host operating system. Skip the SCSI INQUIRY command and use either the ATA
IDENTIFY DEVICE command (for non-packet devices) or the ATA IDENTIFY PACKET DEVICE
command. To show the response in hex, add a '--verbose' option. This option is only
available in Linux.
-c, --cmddt
set the Command Support Data (CmdDt) bit (defaults to clear(0)). Used in
conjunction with the --page=PG option where PG specifies the SCSI command opcode to
query. When used twice (e.g. '-cc') this utility forms a list by looping over all
256 opcodes (0 to 255 inclusive) only outputting a line for found commands. The
CmdDt bit is now obsolete. It has been replaced by the REPORT SUPPORTED OPERATION
CODES command, see the sg_opcodes(8) utility.
-d, --descriptors
decodes and prints the version descriptors found in a standard INQUIRY response.
There are up to 8 of them. Version descriptors indicate which versions of standards
and/or drafts the DEVICE complies with. The normal components of a standard INQUIRY
are output (typically from the first 36 bytes of the response) followed by the
version descriptors if any.
-e see entry below for --vpd.
-u, --export
prints out information obtained from the device. The output can be modified by
selecting a VPD page with PG (from --page=PG). If the device identification VPD
page 0x83 is given it prints out information in the form:
"SCSI_IDENT_<assoc>_<type>=<ident>" to stdout. If the device serial number VPD page
0x80 is given it prints out information in the form: "SCSI_SERIAL=<ident>". Other
VPD pages are not supported. If no VPD page is given it prints out information in
the form: "SCSI_VENDOR=<vendor>", "SCSI_MODEL=<model>", and "SCSI_REVISION=<rev>",
taken from the standard inquiry. This may be useful for tools like udev(7) in
Linux.
-E, -x, --extended
prints the extended INQUIRY VPD page [0x86].
-h, --help
print out the usage message then exit. When used twice, after the usage message,
there is a list of available abbreviations than can be given to the --page=PG
option.
-H, --hex
rather than decode a standard INQUIRY response, a VPD page or command support data;
print out the response in hex to stdout. Error messages and warnings are typically
output to stderr. When used twice with the ATA Information VPD page [0x89] decodes
the start of the response then outputs the ATA IDENTIFY (PACKET) DEVICE response in
hexadecimal bytes (not 16 bit words). When used three times with the ATA
Information VPD page [0x89] or the --ata option, this utility outputs the ATA
IDENTIFY (PACKET) DEVICE response in hexadecimal words suitable for input to
'hdparm --Istdin'. See note below.
-i, --id
prints the device identification VPD page [0x83].
-l, --len=LEN
the number LEN is the "allocation length" field in the INQUIRY cdb. This is the
(maximum) length of the response to be sent by the device. The default value of
LEN is 0 which is interpreted as: first request is for 36 bytes and if necessary
execute another INQUIRY if the "additional length" field in the response indicates
that more than 36 bytes is available. If LEN is greater than 0 then only one
INQUIRY command is performed. See paragraph below about "36 byte INQUIRYs".
-m, --maxlen=LEN
this option has the same action as the --len=LEN option. It has been added for
compatibility with the sg_vpd, sg_modes and sg_logs utilities.
-O, --old
switch to older style options.
-p, --page=PG
the PG argument can be either a number of an abbreviation for a VPD page. To
enumerate the available abbreviations for VPD pages use '-hh' or a bad abbreviation
(e.g, '--page=xxx'). When the --cmddt option is given (once) then PG is interpreted
as an opcode number (so VPD page abbreviations make little sense).
-r, --raw
output the response in binary to stdout. Error messages and warnings, if any, are
sent to stderr.
-s, --vendor
output a standard INQUIRY response's vendor specific field from offset 36 to 55 in
ASCII. When used twice (i.e. '-ss') also output the vendor specific field from
offset 96 in ASCII. This is only done if the data passes some simple sanity checks.
-v, --verbose
increase level of verbosity. Can be used multiple times.
-V, --version
print out version string then exit.
-e, --vpd
set the Enable Vital Product Data (EVPD) bit (defaults to clear(0)). Used in
conjunction with the --page=PG option where PG specifies the VPD page number to
query. If the --page=PG is not given then PG defaults to zero which is the
"Supported VPD pages" VPD page.
NOTES
Some devices with weak SCSI command set implementations lock up when they receive commands
they don't understand (or even response lengths that they don't expect). Such devices need
to be treated carefully, use the '--len=36' option. Without this option this utility will
issue an initial standard INQUIRY requesting 36 bytes of response data. If the device
indicates it could have supplied more data then a second INQUIRY is issued to fetch the
longer response. That second command may lock up faulty devices.
ATA or ATAPI devices that use a SCSI to ATA Translation layer (see SAT at www.t10.org) may
support the ATA Information VPD page. This returns the IDENTIFY (PACKET) DEVICE response
amongst other things. The ATA Information VPD page can be fetched with '--page=ai'.
In the INQUIRY standard response there is a 'MultiP' flag which is set when the device has
2 or more ports. Some vendors use the preceding vendor specific ('VS') bit to indicate
which port is being accessed by the INQUIRY command (0 -> relative port 1 (port "a"), 1 ->
relative port 2 (port "b")). When the 'MultiP' flag is set, the preceding vendor specific
bit is shown in parentheses. SPC-3 compliant devices should use the device identification
VPD page (0x83) to show which port is being used for access and the SCSI ports VPD page
(0x88) to show all available ports on the device.
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").
The number of bytes output by --hex and --raw is 36 bytes or the number given to --len=LEN
(or --maxlen=LEN). That number is reduced if the "resid" returned by the HBA indicates
less bytes were sent back from DEVICE.
ATA DEVICES
There are two major types of ATA devices: non-packet devices (e.g. ATA disks) and packet
devices (ATAPI). The majority of ATAPI devices are CD/DVD/BD drives in which the ATAPI
transport carries the MMC set (i.e. a SCSI command set). Further, both types of ATA
devices can be connected to a host computer via a "SCSI" (or some other) transport. When
an ATA disk is controlled via a SCSI (or non-ATA) transport then two approaches are
commonly used: tunnelling (e.g. STP in Serial Attached SCSI (SAS)) or by emulating a SCSI
device (e.g. with a SCSI to ATA translation layer, see SAT at www.t10.org ). Even when the
physical transport to the host computer is ATA (especially in the case of SATA) the
operating system may choose to put a SAT layer in the driver "stack" (e.g. libata in
Linux).
The main identifying command for any SCSI device is an INQUIRY. The corresponding command
for an ATA non-packet device is IDENTIFY DEVICE while for an ATA packet device it is
IDENTIFY PACKET DEVICE.
When this utility is invoked for an ATAPI device (e.g. a CD/DVD/BD drive with "sg_inq
/dev/hdc") then a SCSI INQUIRY is sent to the device and if it responds then the response
to decoded and output and this utility exits. To see the response for an ATA IDENTIFY
PACKET DEVICE command add the --ata option (e.g. "sg_inq --ata /dev/hdc).
This utility doesn't decode the response to an ATA IDENTIFY (PACKET) DEVICE command,
hdparm does a good job at that. The '-HHH' option has been added for use with either the
'--ata' or '--page=ai' option to produce a format acceptable to "hdparm --Istdin". An
example: 'sg_inq --ata -HHH /dev/hdc | hdparm --Istdin'. See hdparm.
EXIT STATUS
The exit status of sg_inq is 0 when it is successful. Otherwise see the sg3_utils(8) man
page.
OLDER COMMAND LINE OPTIONS
The options in this section were the only ones available prior to sg3_utils version 1.23 .
In sg3_utils version 1.23 and later these older options can be selected by either setting
the SG3_UTILS_OLD_OPTS environment variable or using --old (or -O) as the first option.
-36 only requests 36 bytes of response data for an INQUIRY. Furthermore even if the
device indicates in its response it can supply more data, a second (longer) INQUIRY
is not performed. This is a paranoid setting. Equivalent to '--len=36' in the main
description.
-a fetch the ATA Information VPD page [0x89]. Equivalent to '--page=ai' in the main
description. This page is defined in SAT (see at www.t10.org).
-A Assume given DEVICE is an ATA or ATAPI device. Equivalent to --ata in the main
description.
-b decodes the Block Limits VPD page [0xb0]. Equivalent to '--page=bl' in the main
description. This page is defined in SBC-2 (see www.t10.org).
-c set the Command Support Data (CmdDt) bit (defaults to clear(0)). Used in
conjunction with the -o=OPCODE_PG option to specify the SCSI command opcode to
query. Equivalent to --cmddt in the main description.
-cl lists the command data for all supported commands (followed by the command name) by
looping through all 256 opcodes. This option uses the CmdDt bit which is now
obsolete. See the sg_opcodes(8) utility. Equivalent to '--cmddt --cmddt' in the
main description.
-d decodes depending on context. If -e option is given, or any option that implies -e
(e.g. '-i' or '-p=80'), then this utility attempts to decode the indicated VPD
page. Otherwise the version descriptors (if any) are listed following a standard
INQUIRY response. In the version descriptors sense, equivalent to --descriptors in
the main description.
-e enable (i.e. sets) the Vital Product Data (EVPD) bit (defaults to clear(0)). Used
in conjunction with the -p=VPD_PG option to specify the VPD page to fetch. If
-p=VPD_PG is not given then VPD page 0 (list supported VPD pages) is assumed.
-h outputs INQUIRY response in hex rather than trying to decode it. Equivalent to
--hex in the main description.
-H same action as -h. Equivalent to --hex in the main description.
-i decodes the Device Identification VPD page [0x83]. Equivalent to --id in the main
description. This page is made up of several "designation descriptors". If -h is
given then each descriptor header is decoded and the identifier itself is output in
hex. To see the whole VPD 0x83 page response in hex use '-p=83 -h'.
-m decodes the Management network addresses VPD page [0x85]. Equivalent to
'--page=mna' in the main description.
-M decodes the Mode page policy VPD page [0x87]. Equivalent to '--page=mpp' in the
main description.
-N switch to the newer style options.
-o=OPCODE_PG
used in conjunction with the -e or -c option. If neither given then the -e option
assumed. When the -e option is also given (or assumed) then the argument to this
option is the VPD page number. The argument is interpreted as hexadecimal and is
expected to be in the range 0 to ff inclusive. Only VPD page 0 is decoded and it
lists supported VPD pages and their names (if known). To decode the mandatory
device identification page (0x83) use the -i option. A now obsolete usage is when
the -c option is given in which case the argument to this option is assumed to be a
command opcode number. Recent SCSI draft standards have moved this facility to a
separate command (see sg_opcodes(8)). Defaults to 0 so if -e is given without this
option then VPD page 0 is output.
-p=VPD_PG
same action as -o=OPCODE_PG option described in the previous entry. Since the
opcode value with the CmdDt is now obsolete, the main use of this option is to
specify the VPD page number. The argument is interpreted as hexadecimal and is
expected to be in the range 0 to ff inclusive. Defaults to 0 so if -e is given
without this option then VPD page 0 is output.
-P decodes the Unit Path Report VPD page [0xc0] which is EMC specific. Equivalent to
'--page=upr' in the main description.
-r outputs the response in binary to stdout. Equivalent to --raw in the main
description. Can be used twice (i.e. '-rr' (and '-HHH' has same effect)) and if
used with the -A or -a option yields output with the same format as "cat
/proc/ide/hd<x>/identify" so that it can then be piped to "hdparm --Istdin".
-s decodes the SCSI Ports VPD page [0x88]. Equivalent to '--page=sp' in the main
description.
-u equivalent to '--export' in the main description.
-v increase level of verbosity. Can be used multiple times.
-V print out version string then exit.
-x decodes the Extended INQUIRY data VPD [0x86] page. Equivalent to '--page=ei' in
the main description.
-? output usage message and exit. Ignore all other parameters.
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 view the standard inquiry response use without options:
sg_inq /dev/sda
Some SCSI devices include version descriptors indicating the various SCSI standards and
drafts they support. They can be viewed with:
sg_inq -d /dev/sda
Modern SCSI devices include Vital Product Data (VPD)pages which can be viewed with the
SCSI INQUIRY command. To list the supported VPD pages (but not their contents) try:
sg_inq -e /dev/sda
Some VPD pages can be read with the sg_inq utility but a newer utility called sg_vpd
specializes in showing their contents. The sdparm utility can also be used to show the
contents of VPD pages.
Further examples of sg_inq together with some typical output can be found on
http://sg.danny.cz/sg/sg3_utils.html web page.
AUTHOR
Written by Douglas Gilbert
REPORTING BUGS
Report bugs to <dgilbert at interlog dot com>.
COPYRIGHT
Copyright © 2001-2013 Douglas Gilbert
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_opcodes(8), sg_vpd(8), sdparm(8), hdparm(8), sgdiag(scsirastools)