SG3UTILS                                            SGIDENT(1M)



NAME
     sgident - sends a SCSI REPORT or SET  IDENTIFYING  INFORMA-
     TION command

SYNOPSIS
     sgident [--ascii] [--clear] [--help]  [--itype=IT]  [--raw]
     [--set] [--verbose] [--version] DEVICE

DESCRIPTION
     Send a SCSI REPORT IDENTIFYING INFORMATION or SET  IDENTIFY-
     ING  INFORMATION  command to DEVICE. Prior to SPC-4 (revison
     7) these commands were called REPORT DEVICE  IDENTIFIER  and
     SET  DEVICE  IDENTIFIER respectively. SCSI devices that sup-
     port these two commands allow users to write (set) identify-
     ing  information  and report it back at some later time. The
     information is persistent (i.e. stored on some  non-volatile
     medium  within  the  SCSI  device  that will survive a power
     outage).

     Typically the space allocated for the  information  is  lim-
     ited:   SPC-4  (revision 7) states that for information type
     0, the minimum length is 64 bytes and  the  maximum  is  512
     bytes.  For other information types (1 to 126 inclusive) the
     maximum length is 256 bytes. Also information types 1 to 126
     (inclusive)  should  contain a null terminated UTF-8 string.
     The author has seen older disks that only support 16 bytes.

     The default action when no options are given  is  to  invoke
     the Report Identifying Information command with the informa-
     tion type defaulting to zero.  Error  reports  are  sent  to
     stderr. By default the information is shown in ASCI-HEX (up
     to 16 bytes per line) with an ASCI  representation  to  the
     right with dots replacing non printable characters.

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

     -A, --ascii
          invokes the Report Identifying Information command  and
          if  anything  is found interprets it as ASCI (or UTF-8
          depending on the locale) and prints the information  to
          stdout.

     -C, --clear
          invokes the Set Identifying Information command with an
          information  length  of  zero.  This  has the effect of
          clearing the existing information.

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




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SG3UTILS                                            SGIDENT(1M)



     -i, --itype=IT
          where IT is the information type. Defaults to zero. The
          maximum  value  is  127  which is special and cannot be
          used with --set or --clear. The information type of 127
          (if  supported)  causes the REPORT IDENTIFYING INFORMA-
          TION command to respond with a list of available infor-
          mation  types  and  their maximum lengths in bytes. The
          odd  numbered  information  types  between  3  and  125
          (inclusive)  are not to be used (as they clash with the
          SC-2 standard).

     -r, --raw
          invokes the Report Identifying information command  and
          if  anything  is found sends the information (which may
          be binary) to stdout. Nothing else is  sent  to  stdout
          however error reports, if any, are sent to stderr.

     -S, --set
          first reads stdin until an EOF is detected then invokes
          the Set Identifying Information command to set what has
          been fetched from stdin as the information. The  amount
          of  data  read  must  be between 1 and 512 bytes length
          (inclusive).

     -v, --verbose
          increase the level of verbosity, (i.e. debug output).

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

     This utility permits users to write  their  own  identifying
     information  to  their SCSI devices. There are several other
     types of descriptors (or designators) that the  user  cannot
     change.  These  include  the  SCSI  INQUIRY command with its
     standard vendor and product identification strings  and  the
     product revision level; plus the large amount of information
     provided  by  the  "Device  Identification"  VPD  page  (see
     sgvpd).  There is also the READ MEDIA SERIAL NUMBER command
     (see sgrmsn). The MC-4 command set for CD and DVDs  has  a
     "media  serial  number" feature (0x109) [and a "logical unit
     serial number"  feature].  These  can  be  viewed  with  the
     sggetconfig utility.

EXAMPLES
     First, to see if there is an existing information whose for-
     mat is unknown (for information type 0), use no options:

       # sgident /dev/sdb
        00     31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38  39 30          1234567890

     If it is ASCI then it can printed as such:




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SG3UTILS                                            SGIDENT(1M)



       # sgident --ascii /dev/sdb
       1234567890

     The information can be copied to a file,  cleared  and  then
     re-asserted with this sequence:

       # sgident --raw /dev/sdb > t
       # sgident --clear /dev/sdb
       # cat t  sgident --set /dev/sdb

EXIT STATUS
     The exit status of sgident is 0 when it is successful. Oth-
     erwise see the sg3utils(1M) man page.

AUTHORS
     Written by Douglas Gilbert.

REPORTING BUGS
     Report bugs to .

COPYRIGHT
     Copyright O 2005-2007 Douglas Gilbert
     This software is distributed under a FreeBSD license.  There
     is  NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNES FOR
     A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

SEE ALSO
     sgvpd(sg3utils),                       sgrmsn(sg3utils),
     sggetconfig(sg3utils)

ATRIBUTES
     See attributes(5) for descriptions of the  following  attri-
     butes:

     
       ATRIBUTE TYPE     ATRIBUTE VALUE
    
     Availability         SUNWsg3utilsu  
    
     Interface Stability  Committed      
    

NOTES
     Source for sg3utils is available on http:/opensolaris.org.











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