Re: new tool: blktool

Mark Lord wrote:

 >* I don't mind HDIO_DRIVE_TASK nearly as much as HDIO_DRIVE_CMD,
 >* since the command protocol is available.

That's not HDIO_DRIVE_TASKFILE, by the way..  a different beast there.

HDIO_DRIVE_TASK is just a slightly different form of HDIO_DRIVE_CMD
for non-data commands (specifically, some SMART commands),
with a more complete register set being exchanged.

Oops, indeed I meant HDIO_DRIVE_TASKFILE.

Anyway, once the infrastructure for the ATA Pass-thru CDB is implemented 
in libata, it is trivial to implement any of these three HDIO_DRIVE_xxx 
ioctls, using the ioctl data to build a scsi command internally.  A bit 
strange at first glance, but it maximizes the leverage of existing 
kernel infrastructure to send commands, time them out, etc.

	Jeff