Re: [patch] libata: add ioctls to support SMART

[Jeff Garzik]

Brad Campbell wrote:
> John W. Linville wrote:
>
> > Support for HDIO_DRIVE_CMD and HDIO_DRIVE_TASK in libata.  Useful for
> > supporting SMART w/ unmodified smartctl and smartd userland binaries.
> >
> > Not happy w/ loop after failed ata_qc_new_init(), but needed because 
> > smartctl
> > and smartd did not retry after failure.  Likely need an option to wait 
> > for
> > available qc?  Also not sure all the error return codes are correct...
>
> YYYYYYYYYYEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeehhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!
>
> I know it's a bit kludgy and does not really fit the philosophy of 
> libata but it works and it lets me keep an eye on my drives *now*.
>
> Although just for good measure I'll probably unmount and stop my raid 
> arrays before I use it on the disks. Whats it like for locking on a busy 
> system?

I wouldn't trust it on a busy system yet -- it submits the command to 
the device without checking if there is a command already outstanding.

The patch could _definitely_ corrupt data or lock your hardware, since 
it bypasses the SCSI mechanism that ensures that only one command is 
executing at a time.

	Jeff



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