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SG_REQUESTS(8) SG3_UTILS SG_REQUESTS(8)

NAME
sg_requests - send one or more SCSI REQUEST SENSE commands

SYNOPSIS
sg_requests [--desc] [--error] [--help] [--hex] [--maxlen=LEN] [--num=NUM] [--number=NUM]
[--progress] [--raw] [--status] [--time] [--verbose] [--version] DEVICE

DESCRIPTION
Send SCSI REQUEST SENSE command to DEVICE and output the parameter data response which is ex‐
pected to be in sense data format. Both fixed and descriptor sense data formats are sup‐
ported.

Multiple REQUEST SENSE commands can be sent with the --num=NUM option. This can be used for
timing purposes or monitoring the progress indication.

OPTIONS
Arguments to long options are mandatory for short options as well.

-d, --desc
sets the DESC bit in the REQUEST SENSE SCSI cdb. The DEVICE should return sense data
in descriptor (rather than fixed) format. This will only occur if the DEVICE recog‐
nizes descriptor format (SPC-3 and later). If the device is pre SPC-3 then setting a
bit in a reserved field may cause a check condition status with an illegal request
sense key, but will most likely be ignored.

-e, --error
when used once it changes the REQUEST SENSE opcode from 0x3 to 0xff which should be
rejected by the DEVICE. There is a small chance that the device vendor has implemented
a vendor specific command at that opcode (0xff). When used twice the pass-through
call to send the SCSI command is bypassed. The idea here is to measure the user space
overhead of this package's library to set up and process the response of a SCSI com‐
mand. This option will be typically used with the --num=NUM and --time options where
NUM is a large number (e.g. 1000000).

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

-H, --hex
output response in ASCII hexadecimal.

-m, --maxlen=LEN
where LEN is the (maximum) response length in bytes. It is placed in the cdb's "allo‐
cation length" field. If not given (or LEN is zero) then 252 is used. The maximum
value of LEN is 255 (but SPC-4 recommends 252).

-n, --num=NUM
perform NUM SCSI REQUEST SENSE commands, stopping when either NUM is reached or an er‐
ror occurs. The default value for NUM is 1 .

--number=NUM
same action as --num=NUM. Added for compatibility with sg_turs.

-p, --progress
show progress indication (a percentage) if available. If --num=NUM is given, NUM is
greater than 1 and an initial progress indication was detected then this utility waits
30 seconds before subsequent checks. Exits when NUM is reached or there are no more
progress indications. Ignores --hex, --raw and --time options. See NOTES section be‐
low.

-r, --raw
output response in binary (to stdout).

-s, --status
if the REQUEST SENSE command finished without error (as indicated by its SCSI status)
then the contents of the parameter data are analysed as sense data and the exit status
is set accordingly. The default action (i.e. when this option is not given) is to ig‐
nore the contents of the parameter data for the purposes of setting the exit status.
Some types of error set a sense key of "NO SENSE" with non-zero information in the ad‐
ditional sense code (e.g. the FAILURE PREDICTION THRESHOLD EXCEEDED group of codes);
this results in an exit status value of 10. If the sense key is "NO SENSE" and both
asc and ascq are zero then the exit status is set to 0 . See the sg3_utils(8) man page
for exit status values.

-t, --time
time the SCSI REQUEST SENSE command(s) and calculate the average number of operations
per second.

-v, --verbose
increase the level of verbosity, (i.e. debug output). Additionally the response (if
received) is output in ASCII-HEX. Use this option multiple times for greater ver‐
bosity.

-V, --version
print the version string and then exit.

NOTES
In SCSI 1 and 2 the REQUEST SENSE command was very important for error and warning processing
in SCSI. The autosense capability rendered this command almost superfluous.

However recent SCSI drafts (e.g. SPC-4 rev 14 and SBC-3 rev 14) increase the utility of the
REQUEST SENSE command. Idle and standby (low) power conditions can be detected with this com‐
mand.

The REQUEST SENSE command is not marked as mandatory in SPC-3 (i.e. for all SCSI devices) but
is marked as mandatory in SBC-2 (i.e. for disks), SSC-3 (i.e. for tapes) and MMC-4 (i.e. for
CD/DVD/HD-DVD/BD drives).

The progress indication is optionally part of the sense data. When a prior command that takes
a long time to complete (and typically precludes other media access commands) is still under‐
way, the progress indication can be used to determine how long before the device returns to
its normal state.

The SCSI FORMAT command for disks used with the IMMED bit set is an example of an operation
that takes a significant amount of time and precludes other media access during that time.
The IMMED bit set instructs the FORMAT command to return control to the application client
once the format has commenced (see SBC-3). Several long duration SCSI commands associated
with tape drives also use the progress indication (see SSC-3).

Early standards suggested that the SCSI TEST UNIT READY command be used for polling the
progress indication (see the sg_turs utility). Since SPC-3 the standards suggest that the
SCSI REQUEST SENSE command should be used instead.

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

EXIT STATUS
The exit status of sg_requests is 0 when it is successful. Otherwise see the sg3_utils(8) man
page.

AUTHORS
Written by Douglas Gilbert.

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