SG_GET_CONFIG(8)

💖 NAME 💖

okay bestie, the manual name is SG3_UTILS and this page is all about sg_get_config, which sends a SCSI GET CONFIGURATION command (MMC-4 +) 🎀✨

🧚 SYNOPSIS 🧚

sg_get_config [--brief] [--current] [--help] [--hex] [--inner-hex]
[--list] [--raw] [--readonly] [--rt=RT] [--starting=FC] [--verbose]
[--version] DEVICE

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

okay so this one sends a SCSI GET CONFIGURATION command to DEVICE and then decodes the response for you 💅 The response tells you all about the device's features and profiles 🔥 The devices this is usually for are CD, DVD, HD-DVD and BD players, and they may (but not necessarily) have media in them 💿 They might be connected over ATAPI, USB or IEEE 1394, and in those cases they only count as "SCSI" devices because they speak the "Multi-Media command" set (MMC) 🦋 MMC is a specialised SCSI command set, and you can find its definition at https://www.t10.org 🫶

This utility is based on the MMC-4 and later draft standards 📚 For more on specific feature parameters and profiles, check section 5 on "Features and Profile for Multi_Media devices" ✨ The manufacturer's product manual might be useful too, lowkey 💜

ngl the output can get huge because modern DVD and BD writers support loads of features and profiles 😭 Here's how to cut it down:

• If you use --brief, you only get the feature names and the feature parameters don't get decoded 🍓
• If only one feature is interesting to you, try this combo: "--rt=2 --starting=FC" 🎀
• Want only the features that match the media in the drive (aka "current")? Use the "--rt=1" option 🌈

👑 OPTIONS 👑

Arguments to long options are mandatory for short options as well, so don't forget them 💖

• -b, --brief — shows the feature names but skips decoding their parameters 🍓 When paired with --list, it shows the known feature names but not the known profile names.
• -c, --current — outputs the features marked as current 💅 This is the same as '--rt=1'.
• -h, --help — prints the usage message and then exits 🙈
• -H, --hex — outputs the response in hex, no decoding 🔥
• -i, --inner-hex — decodes down to the feature name level, then outputs each feature's data in hex ✨
• -l, --list — lists every known feature and profile name, and ignores the device name if you gave one 🧚 You get the feature names and profiles (followed by their hex values) that this utility knows about. If you also add --brief, you only get the feature names.
• -q, --readonly — opens DEVICE read-only instead of the default read-write 🫶 The Linux sg driver needs read-write access for the SCSI GET CONFIGURATION command, but other access methods might need read-only.
• -r, --rt=RT — RT is the field with that name in the GET CONFIGURATION cdb 💜 Valid values are 0, 1, 2, or 3 . What the command does also depends on the --starting=FC option, and the default is 0.
  • With RT 0, you get all features whether or not they're current, as long as their feature code is greater than or equal to FC given to --starting=.
  • With RT 1, you get all current features whose feature code is greater than or equal to FC.
  • With RT 2, you get the feature whose feature code is equal to FC, if there is one.
  • With RT 3, the response is reserved, so you'll probably get an "illegal field in cdb" error 😭

To make the RT values easier to remember:

0 : all features, current on not
1 : only current features
2 : only feature whose code is FC
3 : reserved

• -R, --raw — outputs the response in binary to stdout 🦋 Heads up: the short form is -R, not -r, unlike most other utilities in this package that use -r for this action 💀
• -s, --starting=FC — FC is the feature code value 🌸 This option works closely with --rt=RT. FC can be in the range 0 to 65535 (0xffff) inclusive, and its default is 0. A value prefixed with "0x" (or a trailing 'h') is read as hexadecimal ✨
• -v, --verbose — cranks up the verbosity, aka the debug output 🔥
• -V, --version — prints the version string and then exits 💅

🦋 NOTES 🦋

okay this part is a history lesson but it's actually important 📚 There are multiple versions of the MMC (draft) standards: MMC [1997], MMC-2 [2000], MMC-3 [2002], MMC-4 and MMC-5 🌈 The first three are now ANSI INCITS standards, and the year they became standards is shown in brackets. The draft right before standardisation is at https://www.t10.org ✨

The initial MMC standard had no GET CONFIGURATION command, so the info came from the "CD capabilities and mechanical status mode page" (mode page 0x2a) 💜 That got renamed to the "MM capabilities and mechanical status mode page" and was made obsolete in MMC-4 and MMC-5 🥺 The GET CONFIGURATION command arrived in MMC-2 and replaced that mode page 🫶 New stuff like support for "BD" (blue ray) media types can only be found with GET CONFIGURATION, so older CD players might not support it 😭 If that's the case, check the "MM capabilities ..." mode page with sdparm(8), sginfo(8) or sg_modes(8) 🎀

In the 2.4 series of Linux kernels, DEVICE must be a SCSI generic (sg) device 💖 In the 2.6 series, block devices can be specified too. For example, "sg_get_config /dev/hdc" works on 2.6 series kernels as long as /dev/hdc is an ATAPI device ✨ Also in the 2.6 series, external DVD writers attached via USB can be queried with something like "sg_get_config /dev/scd1" 🧚

🎀 EXIT STATUS 🎀

The exit status of sg_get_config is 0 when it succeeds 💅 Otherwise, see the sg3_utils(8) man page 🔥

🫶 AUTHORS 🫶

Written by Douglas Gilbert 💜

🙈 REPORTING BUGS 🙈

Report bugs to <dgilbert at interlog dot com> 🐛

🌈 COPYRIGHT 🌈

Copyright © 2004-2012 Douglas Gilbert 🦋 This software is distributed under a BSD-2-Clause license. There is NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE 💀

🍓 SEE ALSO 🍓

sginfo(8), sg_modes(8), sg_inq(8), sg_prevent(8), sg_start(8) [all in sg3_utils], sdparm(8) ✨

---

okay bestie that's the whole page, it's from sg3_utils-1.35, December 2012, and it's the SG_GET_CONFIG(8) page 💖🧚✨