man > sg_inq(8)

SG_INQ(8)                                     SG3_UTILS                                    SG_INQ(8)

NAME
       sg_inq - issue SCSI INQUIRY command and/or decode its response

SYNOPSIS
       sg_inq  [--ata]  [--block=0|1]  [--cmddt]  [--descriptors]  [--export] [--extended] [--force]
       [--help]  [--hex]  [--id]  [--inhex=FN]   [--len=LEN]    [--long]   [--maxlen=LEN]   [--only]
       [--page=PG] [--raw] [--vendor] [--verbose] [--version] [--vpd] DEVICE

       sg_inq  [-36]  [-a]  [-A]  [-b]  [--B=0|1]  [-c]  [-cl] [-d] [-e] [-f] [-h] [-H] [-i] [-I=FN]
       [-l=LEN] [-L] [-m] [-M] [-o] [-p=VPD_PG] [-P] [-r] [-s] [-u] [-v] [-V] [-x] [-36] [-?] DEVICE

DESCRIPTION
       This utility, when DEVICE is given, sends a SCSI INQUIRY command to it then outputs  the  re‐
       sponse. 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.

       Alternatively the --inhex=FN option can be given. In this case FN is assumed  to  be  a  file
       name ('-' for stdin) containing ASCII hexadecimal representing an INQUIRY response.

       This utility supports two command line syntaxes. The preferred one is shown first in the syn‐
       opsis and is described in the main OPTIONS section. A later section titled OLDER COMMAND LINE
       OPTIONS describes 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 informa‐
       tion on new VPD pages see the sg_vpd(8) or sdparm(8) utilities.

       In  Linux,  if  the DEVICE exists and the SCSI INQUIRY fails (e.g. 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). For more information see the ATA DEVICES section below.

       In  some  operating systems a NVMe device (e.g. SSD) may be given as the DEVICE. For more in‐
       formation see the NVME DEVICES section below.

       The reference document used for interpreting an INQUIRY is T10/BSR  INCITS  502  Revision  19
       which  is draft SPC-5 revision 19, 14 February 2018). It can be found at http://www.t10.org .
       Obsolete and reserved items in the standard INQUIRY response output are displayed  in  square
       brackets.

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.

       -B, --block=0|1
              this option controls how the file handle to the DEVICE is opened. If this argument  is
              0  then  the  open is non-blocking. If the argument is 1 then the open is blocking. In
              Unix a non-blocking open is indicated by a O_NONBLOCK flag while a  blocking  open  is
              indicated by the absence of that flag. The default value depends on the operating sys‐
              tem and the type of DEVICE node. For Linux pass-throughs (i.e. the sg and bsg drivers)
              the default is 0.

       -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 commands that are found. 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  out‐
              put  (typically  from  the first 36 bytes of the response) followed by the version de‐
              scriptors if any.

       -e     see entry below for --vpd.

       -f, --force
              As a sanity check, the normal action when fetching VPD pages other than page 0x0  (the
              "Supported  VPD pages" VPD page), is to first fetch page 0x0 and only if the requested
              page is one of the supported pages, to go ahead and fetch the requested page.
              When this option is given, skip checking of VPD page  0x0  before  accessing  the  re‐
              quested  VPD  page.  The prior check of VPD page 0x0 is known to crash certain USB de‐
              vices, so use with care.

       -u, --export
              prints out information obtained from the device. The output can be modified by select‐
              ing 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 and send the output to stdout.  Error messages and warn‐
              ings 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.
              To generate output suitable for placing in a file that can be used by a later  invoca‐
              tion  with  the  --inhex=FN  option,  use the '-HHHH' option (e.g. 'sg_inq -p di -HHHH
              /dev/sg3 > dev_id.hex').

       -i, --id
              prints the device identification VPD page [0x83].

       -I, --inhex=FN
              FN is expected to be a file name (or '-' for stdin) which contains  ASCII  hexadecimal
              or  binary  representing  an  INQUIRY (including VPD page) response. This utility will
              then decode that response. It is preferable to also supply the  --page=PG  option,  if
              not  this  utility will attempt to guess which VPD page (or standard INQUIRY) that the
              response is associated with. The hexadecimal should be arranged as 1 or 2 digits  rep‐
              resenting a byte each of which is whitespace or comma separated. Anything from and in‐
              cluding a hash mark to the end of a line is ignored. If the --raw option is also given
              then FN is treated as binary.

       -l, --len=LEN
              the number LEN is the "allocation length" field in the INQUIRY cdb.  This is the (max‐
              imum)  length  of  the  response returned by the device. The default value of LEN is 0
              which is interpreted as: first request is for 36 bytes and if  necessary  execute  an‐
              other  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.  This means  that
              the Serial Number (obtained from the Serial Number VPD pgae (0x80)) is not fetched and
              therefore not printed.  See the NOTES section below about "36 byte INQUIRYs".

       -L, --long
              this  option causes more information to be decoded from the Identify command sent to a
              NVMe DEVICE.

       -m, --maxlen=LEN
              this option has the same action as the --len=LEN option above. It has been  added  for
              compatibility with the sg_vpd, sg_modes and sg_logs utilities.

       -O, --old
              Switch to older style options. Please use as first option on the command line.

       -o, --only
              Do  not  attempt to additionally retrieve the serial number VPD page (0x80) to enhance
              the output of a standard INQUIRY. So with this option given and no others, this  util‐
              ity  will  send a standard INQUIRY SCSI command and decode its response. No other SCSI
              commands will be sent to the DEVICE.  Without this option an additional  SCSI  command
              is  sent:  a  (non-standard) SCSI INQUIRY to fetch the Serial Number VPD page. However
              the Serial Number VPD page is not mandatory (while the Device Identification  page  is
              mandatory but a billion USB keys ignore that) and may cause nuisance error reports.
              For  NVMe  devices  only  the Identify controller is performed, even if the DEVICE in‐
              cludes  a  namespace  identifier.  For  example  in  FreeBSD  given  a  DEVICE   named
              /dev/nvme0ns1 then an Identify controller is sent to /dev/nvme0 and nothing is sent to
              its "ns1" (first namespace).

       -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).
              If  PG is a negative number, then a standard INQUIRY is performed. This can be used to
              override some guessing logic associated with the --inhex=FN option.
              If PG is not found in the 'Supported VPD pages' VPD page (0x0) then EDOM is  returned.
              To bypass this check use the --force option.

       -r, --raw
              in the absence of --inhex=FN then the output response is in binary.  The output should
              be  piped to a file or another utility when this option is used. The binary is sent to
              stdout, and errors are sent to stderr.
              If used with --inhex=FN then the contents of FN is treated as binary.

       -s, --vendor
              output a standard INQUIRY response's vendor specific fields 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  conjunc‐
              tion 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. A more up to date decoding of VPD pages can be found in the sg_vpd(8) utility.

NOTES
       Some  devices  with  weak SCSI command set implementations lock up when they receive commands
       they don't understand (and some lock up if they receive response lengths that they don't  ex‐
       pect). Such devices need to be treated carefully, use the '--len=36' option. Without this op‐
       tion  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  is‐
       sued 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 SCSI 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  and later block devices (e.g.  disks and ATAPI DVDs) can also be specified. For exam‐
       ple "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.

       The DEVICE is opened with a read-only flag (e.g. in Unix with the O_RDONLY flag).

ATA DEVICES
       There  are two major types of ATA devices: non-packet devices (e.g. ATA disks) and packet de‐
       vices (ATAPI). The majority of ATAPI devices are CD/DVD/BD drives in which the  ATAPI  trans‐
       port  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: tun‐
       nelling (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 DE‐
       VICE 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.

NVME DEVICES
       Currently  these  device  are typically SSDs (Solid State Disks) directly connected to a PCIe
       connector or via a specialized connector such as a M2 connector. Linux and FreeBSD treat NVMe
       storage devices as separate from SCSI storage with device names like /dev/nvme0n1 (in  Linux)
       and  /dev/nvme0ns1  (in  FreeBSD).  The NVM Express group has a document titled "NVM Express:
       SCSI Translation Reference" which defines a partial "SCSI to NVMe  Translation  Layer"  often
       known by its acronym: SNTL.

       On  operating  systems  where  it is supported by this package, this utility will detect NVMe
       storage devices directly connected and send an Identify controller NVMe Admin command and de‐
       code its response. A NVMe controller is architecturally similar to a SCSI target  device.  If
       the  NVMe  DEVICE indicates a namespace then an Identify namespace NVMe Admin command is sent
       to that namespace and its response is decoded. Namespaces are numbered sequentially  starting
       from  1.  Namespaces  are similar to SCSI Logical Units and their identifiers (nsid_s) can be
       thought of as SCSI LUNs. In the Linux and FreeBSD example device names above the "n1" and the
       "ns1" parts indicate nsid 1 . If no namespace is given in  the  DEVICE  then  all  namespaces
       found in the controller are sent Identify namespace commands and the responses are decoded.

       To get more details in the response use the --long option. To only get the controller's Iden‐
       tify decoded use the --only option.

       It  is  possible that even though the DEVICE presents as a NVMe device, it has a SNTL and ac‐
       cepts SCSI commands. In this case to send a SCSI INQUIRY command (and fetch  its  VPD  pages)
       use 'sg_vpd -p sinq <dev>' (or to get VPD pages: 'sg_vpd -p <vpd_page> <dev>').

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  .
       Since then this utility defaults to the newer command line options which can be overridden by
       using  --old  (or  -O) as the first option. See the ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES section for another
       way to force the use of these older command line options.

       -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 OPTIONS sec‐
              tion.

       -a     fetch the ATA Information VPD page [0x89]. Equivalent to '--page=ai'  in  the  OPTIONS
              section. 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 OPTIONS
              section.

       -b     decodes the Block Limits VPD page [0xb0].  Equivalent to '--page=bl'  in  the  OPTIONS
              section. This page is defined in SBC-2 (see www.t10.org) and later.

       -B=0|1 equivalent to --block=0|1 in OPTIONS section.

       -c     set  the  Command Support Data (CmdDt) bit (defaults to clear(0)). Used in conjunction
              with the -p=VPD_PG option to specify the SCSI command opcode to query.  Equivalent  to
              --cmddt in the OPTIONS section.

       -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  OPTIONS  sec‐
              tion.

       -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 re‐
              sponse.  In  the version descriptors sense, equivalent to --descriptors in the OPTIONS
              section.

       -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.

       -f     Equivalent to --force in the OPTIONS section.

       -h     outputs INQUIRY response in hex rather than trying to decode it.  Equivalent to  --hex
              in the OPTIONS section.

       -H     same action as -h.  Equivalent to --hex in the OPTIONS section.

       -i     decodes  the  Device Identification VPD page [0x83]. Equivalent to --id in the OPTIONS
              section. 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'.

       -I=FN  equivalent to --inhex=FN in the OPTIONS section.

       -l=LEN equivalent to --len=LEN in the OPTIONS section.

       -L     equivalent to --long in the OPTIONS section.

       -m     decodes the Management network addresses VPD page [0x85]. Equivalent  to  '--page=mna'
              in the OPTIONS section.

       -M     decodes  the  Mode page policy VPD page [0x87].  Equivalent to '--page=mpp' in the OP‐
              TIONS section.

       -N, --new
              Switch to the newer style options.

       -o     equivalent to --only in the OPTIONS section.

       -p=VPD_PG
              used in conjunction with the -e or -c option. If neither given then the -e option  as‐
              sumed.  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. Re‐
              cent SCSI draft standards have moved this facility to a separate command  (see  sg_op‐
              codes(8)). Defaults to 0 so if -e is given without this option then VPD page 0 is out‐
              put.

       -P     decodes  the  Unit  Path  Report VPD page [0xc0] which is EMC specific.  Equivalent to
              '--page=upr' in the OPTIONS section.

       -r     outputs the response in binary to stdout.  Equivalent to --raw in the OPTIONS section.
              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 OPTIONS sec‐
              tion.

       -u     equivalent to '--export' in the OPTIONS section.

       -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
              OPTIONS section.

       -?     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 sup‐
       ported 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 special‐
       izes 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.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
       Since sg3_utils version 1.23 the environment variable SG3_UTILS_OLD_OPTS can be  given.  When
       it  is  present  this  utility will expect the older command line options. So the presence of
       this environment variable is equivalent to using --old (or -O) as the first command line  op‐
       tion.

AUTHOR
       Written by Douglas Gilbert

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

COPYRIGHT
       Copyright © 2001-2021 Douglas Gilbert
       This software is distributed under the GPL version 2. There is NO warranty; not even for MER‐
       CHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

SEE ALSO
       sg_opcodes(8), sg_vpd(8), sg_logs(8), sg_modes(8), sdparm(8), hdparm(8), sgdiag(scsirastools)

sg3_utils-1.46                               March 2021                                    SG_INQ(8)