1SG_INQ(8) SG3_UTILS SG_INQ(8)
2
6 sg_inq - issue SCSI INQUIRY command, output and decode response
7
9 sg_inq [--ata] [--cmddt] [--descriptors] [--export] [--extended]
10 [--help] [--hex] [--id] [--len=LEN] [--maxlen=LEN] [--page=PG] [--raw]
11 [--vendor] [--verbose] [--version] [--vpd] DEVICE
12 sg_inq [-36] [-a] [-A] [-b] [-c] [-cl] [-d] [-e] [-h] [-H] [-i]
14 [-l=LEN] [-m] [-M] [-o=OPCODE_PG] [-p=VPD_PG] [-P] [-r] [-s] [-u] [-v]
15 [-V] [-x] [-36] [-?] DEVICE
16
18 This utility by default sends a SCSI INQUIRY command to the given
19 device and then outputs the response. All SCSI devices are meant to
20 respond to a "standard" INQUIRY command with at least a 36 byte
21 response (in SCSI 2 and higher). An INQUIRY is termed as "standard"
22 when both the EVPD and CmdDt (now obsolete) bits are clear.
23 This utility supports two command line syntaxes, the preferred one is
25 shown first in the synopsis and explained in this section. A later sec‐
26 tion on the old command line syntax outlines the second group of
27 options.
28 An important "non-standard" INQUIRY page is the Device Identification
30 Vital Product Data (VPD) page [0x83]. Since SPC-3, support for this
31 page is mandatory. The --id option decodes this page. New VPD page
32 information is no longer being added to this utility. To get informa‐
33 tion on new VPD pages see the sg_vpd(8) or sdparm(8) utilities.
34 If the DEVICE exists and the SCSI INQUIRY fails (because the SG_IO
36 ioctl is not supported) then an ATA IDENTIFY (PACKET) DEVICE is tried.
37 If it succeeds then device identification strings are output. The --raw
38 and --hex options can be used to manipulate the output. If the --ata
39 option is given then the SCSI INQUIRY is not performed and the DEVICE
40 is assumed to be ATA (or ATAPI).
41 The reference document used for interpreting an INQUIRY is T10/1713-D
43 Revision 36e (SPC-4, 24 August 2012) found at http://www.t10.org .
44 Obsolete and reserved items in the standard INQUIRY response output are
45 displayed in brackets. The reference document for the ATA IDENTIFY
46 (PACKET) DEVICE command is ATA8-ACS found at http://www.t13.org .
47
49 Arguments to long options are mandatory for short options as well. The
50 options are arranged in alphabetical order based on the long option
51 name.
52 -a, --ata
54 Assume given DEVICE is an ATA or ATAPI device which can receive
55 ATA commands from the host operating system. Skip the SCSI
56 INQUIRY command and use either the ATA IDENTIFY DEVICE command
57 (for non-packet devices) or the ATA IDENTIFY PACKET DEVICE com‐
58 mand. To show the response in hex, add a '--verbose' option.
59 This option is only available in Linux.
60 -c, --cmddt
62 set the Command Support Data (CmdDt) bit (defaults to clear(0)).
63 Used in conjunction with the --page=PG option where PG specifies
64 the SCSI command opcode to query. When used twice (e.g. '-cc')
65 this utility forms a list by looping over all 256 opcodes (0 to
66 255 inclusive) only outputting a line for found commands. The
67 CmdDt bit is now obsolete. It has been replaced by the REPORT
68 SUPPORTED OPERATION CODES command, see the sg_opcodes(8) util‐
69 ity.
70 -d, --descriptors
72 decodes and prints the version descriptors found in a standard
73 INQUIRY response. There are up to 8 of them. Version descriptors
74 indicate which versions of standards and/or drafts the DEVICE
75 complies with. The normal components of a standard INQUIRY are
76 output (typically from the first 36 bytes of the response) fol‐
77 lowed by the version descriptors if any.
78 -e see entry below for --vpd.
80 -u, --export
82 prints out information obtained from the device. The output can
83 be modified by selecting a VPD page with PG (from --page=PG). If
84 the device identification VPD page 0x83 is given it prints out
85 information in the form: "SCSI_IDENT_<assoc>_<type>=<ident>" to
86 stdout. If the device serial number VPD page 0x80 is given it
87 prints out information in the form: "SCSI_SERIAL=<ident>". Other
88 VPD pages are not supported. If no VPD page is given it prints
89 out information in the form: "SCSI_VENDOR=<vendor>",
90 "SCSI_MODEL=<model>", and "SCSI_REVISION=<rev>", taken from the
91 standard inquiry. This may be useful for tools like udev(7) in
92 Linux.
93 -E, -x, --extended
95 prints the extended INQUIRY VPD page [0x86].
96 -h, --help
98 print out the usage message then exit. When used twice, after
99 the usage message, there is a list of available abbreviations
100 than can be given to the --page=PG option.
101 -H, --hex
103 rather than decode a standard INQUIRY response, a VPD page or
104 command support data; print out the response in hex to stdout.
105 Error messages and warnings are typically output to stderr. When
106 used twice with the ATA Information VPD page [0x89] decodes the
107 start of the response then outputs the ATA IDENTIFY (PACKET)
108 DEVICE response in hexadecimal bytes (not 16 bit words). When
109 used three times with the ATA Information VPD page [0x89] or the
110 --ata option, this utility outputs the ATA IDENTIFY (PACKET)
111 DEVICE response in hexadecimal words suitable for input to
112 'hdparm --Istdin'. See note below.
113 -i, --id
115 prints the device identification VPD page [0x83].
116 -l, --len=LEN
118 the number LEN is the "allocation length" field in the INQUIRY
119 cdb. This is the (maximum) length of the response to be sent by
120 the device. The default value of LEN is 0 which is interpreted
121 as: first request is for 36 bytes and if necessary execute
122 another INQUIRY if the "additional length" field in the response
123 indicates that more than 36 bytes is available. If LEN is
124 greater than 0 then only one INQUIRY command is performed. See
125 paragraph below about "36 byte INQUIRYs".
126 -m, --maxlen=LEN
128 this option has the same action as the --len=LEN option. It has
129 been added for compatibility with the sg_vpd, sg_modes and
130 sg_logs utilities.
131 -O, --old
133 Switch to older style options. Please use as first option.
134 -p, --page=PG
136 the PG argument can be either a number of an abbreviation for a
137 VPD page. To enumerate the available abbreviations for VPD pages
138 use '-hh' or a bad abbreviation (e.g, '--page=xxx'). When the
139 --cmddt option is given (once) then PG is interpreted as an
140 opcode number (so VPD page abbreviations make little sense).
141 -r, --raw
143 output the response in binary to stdout. Error messages and
144 warnings, if any, are sent to stderr.
145 -s, --vendor
147 output a standard INQUIRY response's vendor specific field from
148 offset 36 to 55 in ASCII. When used twice (i.e. '-ss') also out‐
149 put the vendor specific field from offset 96 in ASCII. This is
150 only done if the data passes some simple sanity checks.
151 -v, --verbose
153 increase level of verbosity. Can be used multiple times.
154 -V, --version
156 print out version string then exit.
157 -e, --vpd
159 set the Enable Vital Product Data (EVPD) bit (defaults to
160 clear(0)). Used in conjunction with the --page=PG option where
161 PG specifies the VPD page number to query. If the --page=PG is
162 not given then PG defaults to zero which is the "Supported VPD
163 pages" VPD page.
164
166 Some devices with weak SCSI command set implementations lock up when
167 they receive commands they don't understand (or even response lengths
168 that they don't expect). Such devices need to be treated carefully, use
169 the '--len=36' option. Without this option this utility will issue an
170 initial standard INQUIRY requesting 36 bytes of response data. If the
171 device indicates it could have supplied more data then a second INQUIRY
172 is issued to fetch the longer response. That second command may lock up
173 faulty devices.
174 ATA or ATAPI devices that use a SCSI to ATA Translation layer (see SAT
176 at www.t10.org) may support the ATA Information VPD page. This returns
177 the IDENTIFY (PACKET) DEVICE response amongst other things. The ATA
178 Information VPD page can be fetched with '--page=ai'.
179 In the INQUIRY standard response there is a 'MultiP' flag which is set
181 when the device has 2 or more ports. Some vendors use the preceding
182 vendor specific ('VS') bit to indicate which port is being accessed by
183 the INQUIRY command (0 -> relative port 1 (port "a"), 1 -> relative
184 port 2 (port "b")). When the 'MultiP' flag is set, the preceding vendor
185 specific bit is shown in parentheses. SPC-3 compliant devices should
186 use the device identification VPD page (0x83) to show which port is
187 being used for access and the SCSI ports VPD page (0x88) to show all
188 available ports on the device.
189 In the 2.4 series of Linux kernels the DEVICE must be a SCSI generic
191 (sg) device. In the 2.6 series block devices (e.g. disks and ATAPI
192 DVDs) can also be specified. For example "sg_inq /dev/sda" will work in
193 the 2.6 series kernels. From lk 2.6.6 other SCSI "char" device names
194 may be used as well (e.g. "/dev/st0m").
195 The number of bytes output by --hex and --raw is 36 bytes or the number
197 given to --len=LEN (or --maxlen=LEN). That number is reduced if the
198 "resid" returned by the HBA indicates less bytes were sent back from
199 DEVICE.
200
202 There are two major types of ATA devices: non-packet devices (e.g. ATA
203 disks) and packet devices (ATAPI). The majority of ATAPI devices are
204 CD/DVD/BD drives in which the ATAPI transport carries the MMC set (i.e.
205 a SCSI command set). Further, both types of ATA devices can be con‐
206 nected to a host computer via a "SCSI" (or some other) transport. When
207 an ATA disk is controlled via a SCSI (or non-ATA) transport then two
208 approaches are commonly used: tunnelling (e.g. STP in Serial Attached
209 SCSI (SAS)) or by emulating a SCSI device (e.g. with a SCSI to ATA
210 translation layer, see SAT at www.t10.org ). Even when the physical
211 transport to the host computer is ATA (especially in the case of SATA)
212 the operating system may choose to put a SAT layer in the driver
213 "stack" (e.g. libata in Linux).
214 The main identifying command for any SCSI device is an INQUIRY. The
216 corresponding command for an ATA non-packet device is IDENTIFY DEVICE
217 while for an ATA packet device it is IDENTIFY PACKET DEVICE.
218 When this utility is invoked for an ATAPI device (e.g. a CD/DVD/BD
220 drive with "sg_inq /dev/hdc") then a SCSI INQUIRY is sent to the device
221 and if it responds then the response to decoded and output and this
222 utility exits. To see the response for an ATA IDENTIFY PACKET DEVICE
223 command add the --ata option (e.g. "sg_inq --ata /dev/hdc).
224 This utility doesn't decode the response to an ATA IDENTIFY (PACKET)
226 DEVICE command, hdparm does a good job at that. The '-HHH' option has
227 been added for use with either the '--ata' or '--page=ai' option to
228 produce a format acceptable to "hdparm --Istdin". An example: 'sg_inq
229 --ata -HHH /dev/hdc | hdparm --Istdin'. See hdparm.
230
232 The exit status of sg_inq is 0 when it is successful. Otherwise see the
233 sg3_utils(8) man page.
234
236 The options in this section were the only ones available prior to
237 sg3_utils version 1.23 . In sg3_utils version 1.23 and later these
238 older options can be selected by either setting the SG3_UTILS_OLD_OPTS
239 environment variable or using --old (or -O) as the first option.
240 -36 only requests 36 bytes of response data for an INQUIRY. Further‐
242 more even if the device indicates in its response it can supply
243 more data, a second (longer) INQUIRY is not performed. This is a
244 paranoid setting. Equivalent to '--len=36' in the main descrip‐
245 tion.
246 -a fetch the ATA Information VPD page [0x89]. Equivalent to
248 '--page=ai' in the main description. This page is defined in SAT
249 (see at www.t10.org).
250 -A Assume given DEVICE is an ATA or ATAPI device. Equivalent to
252 --ata in the main description.
253 -b decodes the Block Limits VPD page [0xb0]. Equivalent to
255 '--page=bl' in the main description. This page is defined in
256 SBC-2 (see www.t10.org).
257 -c set the Command Support Data (CmdDt) bit (defaults to clear(0)).
259 Used in
260 conjunction with the -o=OPCODE_PG option to specify the SCSI
261 command opcode to query. Equivalent to --cmddt in the main
262 description.
263 -cl lists the command data for all supported commands (followed by
265 the command name) by looping through all 256 opcodes. This
266 option uses the CmdDt bit which is now obsolete. See the
267 sg_opcodes(8) utility. Equivalent to '--cmddt --cmddt' in the
268 main description.
269 -d decodes depending on context. If -e option is given, or any
271 option that implies -e (e.g. '-i' or '-p=80'), then this utility
272 attempts to decode the indicated VPD page. Otherwise the ver‐
273 sion descriptors (if any) are listed following a standard
274 INQUIRY response. In the version descriptors sense, equivalent
275 to --descriptors in the main description.
276 -e enable (i.e. sets) the Vital Product Data (EVPD) bit (defaults
278 to clear(0)). Used in conjunction with the -p=VPD_PG option to
279 specify the VPD page to fetch. If -p=VPD_PG is not given then
280 VPD page 0 (list supported VPD pages) is assumed.
281 -h outputs INQUIRY response in hex rather than trying to decode it.
283 Equivalent to --hex in the main description.
284 -H same action as -h. Equivalent to --hex in the main description.
286 -i decodes the Device Identification VPD page [0x83]. Equivalent to
288 --id in the main description. This page is made up of several
289 "designation descriptors". If -h is given then each descriptor
290 header is decoded and the identifier itself is output in hex.
291 To see the whole VPD 0x83 page response in hex use '-p=83 -h'.
292 -m decodes the Management network addresses VPD page [0x85]. Equiv‐
294 alent to '--page=mna' in the main description.
295 -M decodes the Mode page policy VPD page [0x87]. Equivalent to
297 '--page=mpp' in the main description.
298 -N, --new
300 Switch to the newer style options.
301 -o=OPCODE_PG
303 used in conjunction with the -e or -c option. If neither given
304 then the -e option assumed. When the -e option is also given (or
305 assumed) then the argument to this option is the VPD page num‐
306 ber. The argument is interpreted as hexadecimal and is expected
307 to be in the range 0 to ff inclusive. Only VPD page 0 is decoded
308 and it lists supported VPD pages and their names (if known). To
309 decode the mandatory device identification page (0x83) use the
310 -i option. A now obsolete usage is when the -c option is given
311 in which case the argument to this option is assumed to be a
312 command opcode number. Recent SCSI draft standards have moved
313 this facility to a separate command (see sg_opcodes(8)).
314 Defaults to 0 so if -e is given without this option then VPD
315 page 0 is output.
316 -p=VPD_PG
318 same action as -o=OPCODE_PG option described in the previous
319 entry. Since the opcode value with the CmdDt is now obsolete,
320 the main use of this option is to specify the VPD page number.
321 The argument is interpreted as hexadecimal and is expected to be
322 in the range 0 to ff inclusive. Defaults to 0 so if -e is given
323 without this option then VPD page 0 is output.
324 -P decodes the Unit Path Report VPD page [0xc0] which is EMC spe‐
326 cific. Equivalent to '--page=upr' in the main description.
327 -r outputs the response in binary to stdout. Equivalent to --raw
329 in the main description. Can be used twice (i.e. '-rr' (and
330 '-HHH' has same effect)) and if used with the -A or -a option
331 yields output with the same format as "cat /proc/ide/hd<x>/iden‐
332 tify" so that it can then be piped to "hdparm --Istdin".
333 -s decodes the SCSI Ports VPD page [0x88]. Equivalent to
335 '--page=sp' in the main description.
336 -u equivalent to '--export' in the main description.
338 -v increase level of verbosity. Can be used multiple times.
340 -V print out version string then exit.
342 -x decodes the Extended INQUIRY data VPD [0x86] page. Equivalent
344 to '--page=ei' in the main description.
345 -? output usage message and exit. Ignore all other parameters.
347
349 The examples in this page use Linux device names. For suitable device
350 names in other supported Operating Systems see the sg3_utils(8) man
351 page.
352 To view the standard inquiry response use without options:
354 sg_inq /dev/sda
356 Some SCSI devices include version descriptors indicating the various
358 SCSI standards and drafts they support. They can be viewed with:
359 sg_inq -d /dev/sda
361 Modern SCSI devices include Vital Product Data (VPD)pages which can be
363 viewed with the SCSI INQUIRY command. To list the supported VPD pages
364 (but not their contents) try:
365 sg_inq -e /dev/sda
367 Some VPD pages can be read with the sg_inq utility but a newer utility
369 called sg_vpd specializes in showing their contents. The sdparm utility
370 can also be used to show the contents of VPD pages.
371 Further examples of sg_inq together with some typical output can be
373 found on http://sg.danny.cz/sg/sg3_utils.html web page.
374
376 Written by Douglas Gilbert
377
379 Report bugs to <dgilbert at interlog dot com>.
380
382 Copyright © 2001-2013 Douglas Gilbert
383 This software is distributed under the GPL version 2. There is NO war‐
384 ranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PUR‐
385 POSE.
386
388 sg_opcodes(8), sg_vpd(8), sdparm(8), hdparm(8), sgdiag(scsirastools)
389sg3_utils-1.36 May 2013 SG_INQ(8)