                      README for sg_utils
                      ===================
Introduction
------------
In this directory are some utilities and test programs for the Linux
sg device driver. If you have problems or questions about them
please contact me at dgilbert@interlog.com . The home site for the
Linux sg device driver is: http://www.torque.net/sg .

All programs are "GPL"-ed so you can incorporate all or part of them
in your applications as you please. The "sg_err.[hc]" files contain
ASCII text corresponding to most of the error and warning conditions
defined by the SCSI 2 standard. They are used by most other programs.

Additional information (including a version number) can be found
towards the top of each ".c" file corresponding to each utility and
test program.


Scope
-----
The sg driver in Linux can be seen as having 3 distinct versions:

   v1   lk < 2.2.6     sg_header based relatively unchanged since 1992
   v2   lk >= 2.2.6    enhanced sg_header interface structure
   v3   lk >= 2.4      additional sg_io_hdr interface structure.

This package is targeted as "v2" but using "make common" will build
a subset of these utilities that will work with "v1". Another package
called "sg3_utils" is targeted at "v3" and has essentially the same
utilities (in some cases with extra options).

Some sg ioctls (noteably SG_IO) are defined for all block devices
from lk 2.5.48 . This version of sg_utils (1.02 and later) guards most
utilities formerly assumed that any device that answers one of sg's 
ioctls was automatically an sg device (e.g. sg_inq).


Utilities
---------
Here is a (somewhat arbitrary) categorization of the utilities included
in this package:
  1) dd variants: sg_dd and sgp_dd
  2) scanning and mapping: sg_scan and sg_map
  3) SCSI support: sg_inq, scsi_inquiry, sginfo, sg_readcap, sg_start,
     sg_whoami and sg_reset
  4) timing and testing: sg_rbuf, sg_test_rwbuf, sg_read, sg_turs,
     and sg_debug
  5) example programs: sg_simple1, sg_simple2 and sg_runt_ex
  6) miscellaneous programs: isosize

There is a brief description of each utility in the following sections.


1) dd variants
--------------
The main utility is a variant of the standard Unix command "dd" that
is called "sg_dd". This program takes a useful subset of the command
line arguments that "dd" takes. Furthermore "sg_dd" will only work if
one or both of the given files (ie "if" or "of") is an "sg" or raw
device.  If "bs" (block size) is not given it is assumed to be 512 
bytes. Available dd options:
   bs=<n>        typically 512 or 2048
   ibs=<n>       if given must be the same as "bs"
   obs=<n>       if given must be the same as "bs"
   if=<name>     like dd plus sg device or "-" (read from stdin)
   of=<name>     like dd plus sg device or "-" (write to stdout)
   skip=<n>      block offset to start reading "if"
   seek=<n>      block offset to start writing "of"
Extra options:
   bpt=<n>       blocks per transfer (default 128)

All numeric arguments can take multiplier suffixes: 
  "c", "C"        * 1 
  "b", "B"        * 512
  "k"             * 1024           [2 ^ 10]
  "K"             * 1000           [10 ^ 3]
  "m"             * 1048576        [2 ^ 20]
  "M"             * 1000000        [10 ^ 6]
  "g"             * 1073741824     [2 ^ 30]
  "G"             * 1000000000     [10 ^ 9]
The 'skip' and 'seek' options lead to the use of the system command
lseek() to a byte offset when used on raw devices and normal files.
[For sg devices 32 bit block addresses are used thus limiting accesses
on disks with 512 byte blocks to 1 TB.] On 32 bit architectures the
normal lseek() is limited to a signed 32 bit byte offset (i.e. 2 GB).
"sg_dd" bypasses this limit by using Linux's _llseek() [while modern
"dd" commands use read loops to "walk" around the limit].
If 'count' is not given then the SCSI READ CAPACITY command will be 
used (on sg devices) if appropriate. [Note that READ CAPACITY often
gives a 2 block overestimate for iso9660 file systems on CD-ROMs. See
the "isosize" command below.] Disk partition information can be found
with a command like "fdisk -ul /dev/sda". The "sg_dd" command has a 
"man" page [section 8].

"sgp_dd" uses POSIX threads and attempts to run multiple IO operations 
in parallel. The user can control the amount of parallelism from 
1 worker (i.e. single threaded) through to 16 worker threads. This is 
done via the "thr=<n>" option (default 4). Copies from one sg device to 
another can be considerably faster due to this parallelism. There is 
also some speed benefit when raw devices are used.
This command has a "man" page [section 8].


2) Scanning and mapping
-----------------------
"sg_scan" does a SCSI bus scan and prints the results to standard output.
With no arguments only read permissions are needed on the sg devices
but if "-i" is given (to do a SCSI Inquiry command on the device) then
write permissions are also needed.

"sg_map" shows the mapping between sg device names and those of the
sd, sr and st device names. Some devices such as scanners have no
corresponding sd, sr nor st device names. This command has a "man"
page [section 8].


3) SCSI support
---------------
"sg_inq" is a utility for poking around the INQUIRY command which
contains much interesting information. It is based on SCSI 3's SPC-1
document and has additional fields defined in the draft SPC-2 document
(revision 18 from May 2000). This command is applicable to SCSI 2 (and
perhaps SCSI 1) devices as well.

The "scsi_inquiry" program shows the use of the SCSI_IOCTL_SEND_COMMAND
ioctl to send a SCSI INQUIRY command. That ioctl() is supported by the
SCSI sub system mid level and so is common to all sd, sr, st and sg devices.

"sginfo" is a re-porting of the "scsiinfo" program by Eric Youngdale to
use the sg devices (rather than the sd, sr or st block devices). This
program outputs "mode sense" information. Amongst other things it outputs
the full defect list of a disk (which was truncated at 4096 bytes in
the original).

"sg_readcap" is built using the same framework as "sg_runt_ex". It
performs a READ CAPACITY command and outputs the result.

"sg_start" has been provided by Kurt Garloff <garloff@suse.de> for spinning
up (or down) disks. See README.sg_start .

"sg_whoami" outputs information about the given sg device and if "-rc"
is given as an additinal argument, it does a SCSI Read capacity
command and outputs the result. A "-h" argument can also be given to
output information about the host adapter connected to the given sg
device.

"sg_reset" exercises the SCSI device/bus/host reset capability. It is
supported by the sg driver in lk 2.2.16 and beyond but associated
SCSI middle level driver changes have not been accepted into the
standard kernel at this time. Some distributions contain the patch to
the mid-level that activates this feature. Due to this uncertainty
the source is placed in the "archive" directory.


4) Timing and testing
---------------------
"sg_rbuf" is designed to test SCSI bus speed. It does this by reading
200MB using the SCSI Read Buffer command from the nominated device.
This command should involve _no_ physical IO (if you wish to time that
use 'time sg_dd ...' instead). This command has a "man" page [section 8].

"sg_test_rwbuf" is a program by Kurt Garloff <garloff@suse.de> that has
the following description:  Program to test the SCSI host adapter by
issueing write and read operations on a device's buffer and calculating
checksums.

"sg_read" reads multiple blocks of data starting at the same logical
address. It can time the transfers (potentially ignoring the first
issued command) and calculate a MB/sec figure. [In keeping with most
disk manuafacturers, "MB" is 1,000,000 bytes in this context.] Its
command line syntax is modelled on "sg_dd". It allows SCSI device,
SCSI bus bandwidth and the SCSI sub-system throughput to be measured.
This can be done in 3 modes: normal transfer to user space, direct
IO or mmap-ed IO.

"sg_turs" executes a user specified number of TEST UNIT READY commands on
the given device. This can be used to time SCSI command overhead.

"sg_debug" must be given a valid sg device as an argument but outputs
internal debug information on the state of _all_ currently open
sg file descriptors. That output goes to the console and perhaps the
log file as well (eg to /var/log/messages depending on the settings
in /etc/syslog.conf).


5) Example programs
-------------------
"sg_simple1" and "sg_simple2" are simple example programs demonstrating
calls to the SCSI INQUIRY and TEST UNIT READY commands. They only differ
in their error processing: sg_simple1 uses sg_err.[hc] for error
processing while sg_simple2 does its own more primitive checks.

"sg_runt_ex" is an example program that uses run time selection to
decide which version of the sg device driver it has and uses the extra
features where appropriate. It performs an INQUIRY and a TEST UNIT READY
command and outputs the results. This program is meant as an example to 
application writers who need to use sg.


6) Miscellaneous
----------------
"isosize" is a utility that gives the number of bytes in an iso9660
file system. It is a rewrite by Andries Brouwer<Andries.Brouwer@cwi.nl>
of a utility that first appeared in the cdwrite package but is now
difficult to obtain. Note that the value given by isosize is usually
2 or more blocks less than the READ CAPACITY SCSI command yields on
a CD-ROM (due to run out sectors). This command has a "man" page
[section 8]. This utility has been moved to the archive directory
as isosize is now available in the util-linux-2.10s package (and later).


Building
--------
A Makefile is provided that builds the above utilities and test programs
'make' and 'make all' will cause everything (that is stale) to be built.

The following programs: sg_dd, sg_scan, sg_rbuf, sg_turs,
sginfo, sg_runt_ex, sg_readcap, sg_simple2, sg_inq and scsi_inquiry
can be built with either the original sg device driver or the new one.
To build just these executables use 'make common'.

A complete rebuild can be forced by executing 'make clean' prior to
any of the above make commands. Individual commands can be built be
giving the executable name to make, for example: 'make sg_dd'.

There is also a 'make dep' but that shouldn't be needed very often.
A 'make install' will build if necessary and then install the
executables into /usr/local/bin by default (controlled by variable
INSTDIR). The "man" pages are loaded int /usr/local/man/man8 by default.

Header file problems
--------------------
These utilities include 2 special Linux header files:
#include <scsi/sg.h>
#include <scsi/scsi.h>
These files are typically found in the directory /usr/include/scsi which
is maintained by the GNU glibc team. Unfortunately these GNU supplied
headers may not be (functionally) the same as those found in the kernel
source:
/usr/src/linux/include/scsi/sg.h   and
/usr/src/linux/include/scsi/scsi.h

If glibc and the kernel on a machine are of the same vintage then it is
probably sufficient to use the simple includes listed at the start of this
section. Another technique is to rely on the fact that
/usr/include/linux is a symbolic link to /usr/src/linux/include/linux .
That will cause the following:
#include <linux/../scsi/sg.h>
#include <linux/../scsi/scsi.h>
to find the kernel supplied header files. However recent versions of
glibc have removed this symlink! Hence this technique is no longer
recommended.

The include file path issues are now all addressed in one file called
"sg_include.h". Please read that file.

Doug Gilbert
12th December  2002
