ch
—
SCSI media-changer (juke box) driver
The ch
driver provides support for a
SCSI media changer. It allows many slots of media to be
multiplexed between a number of drives. The changer device may optionally be
equipped with a bar code reader, which reads label information attached to the
media.
A SCSI adapter must also be separately configured into the system
before a SCSI changer can be configured.
As the SCSI adapter is probed during boot, the
SCSI bus is scanned for devices. Any devices found which
answer as 'Changer' type devices will be 'attached' to the
ch
driver. In FreeBSD
releases prior to 2.1, the first found will be attached as
ch0 and the next, ch1 etc. Beginning in
2.1 it is possible to specify what ch unit a device should come on line as;
refer to
scsi(4)
for details on kernel configuration.
It is only necessary to explicitly configure one ch
device; data structures are dynamically allocated as media changes are found
on the SCSI bus.
User mode programs communicate with the changer driver through a number of
ioctls which are described below. Changer element addresses used in the
communication between the kernel and the changer device are mapped to
zero-based logical addresses. Element types are specified as follows:
CHET_MT
- Medium transport element (picker).
CHET_ST
- Storage element (slot).
CHET_IE
- Import/export element (portal).
CHET_DT
- Data transfer element (drive).
The following
ioctl(2)
calls apply to the changer. They are defined in the header file
<sys/chio.h>
.
CHIOMOVE
- (struct changer_move) Move a medium from one element
to another (MOVE MEDIUM) using the current picker. The
source and destination elements are specified in a changer_move structure,
which includes at least the following fields:
u_int cm_fromtype; /* element type to move from */
u_int cm_fromunit; /* logical unit of from element */
u_int cm_totype; /* element type to move to */
u_int cm_tounit; /* logical unit of to element */
u_int cm_flags; /* misc. flags */
If the CM_INVERT
in the
cm_flags field is set, the medium changer is
instructed to flip the medium while moving it.
CHIOEXCHANGE
- (struct changer_exchange) Move the medium located in
the source element to the first destination element, and move the medium
that had been in the first destination element to the second destination
element. In case of a simple exchange, the source and second destination
elements should be the same. The current picker is used to perform the
operation. The addresses of the affected elements is specified to the
ioctl in a changer_exchange structure which includes
at least the following fields:
u_int ce_srctype; /* element type of source */
u_int ce_srcunit; /* logical unit of source */
u_int ce_fdsttype; /* element type of first destination */
u_int ce_fdstunit; /* logical unit of first destination */
u_int ce_sdsttype; /* element type of second destination */
u_int ce_sdstunit; /* logical unit of second destination */
u_int ce_flags; /* misc. flags */
In ce_flags, CM_INVERT1
and/or
CM_INVERT2
may be set to flip the first or second
medium during the exchange operation, respectively.
This operation is untested.
CHIOPOSITION
- (struct changer_position) Position the current
picker in front of the specified element. The element is specified with a
changer_position structure, which includes at least the following
elements:
u_int cp_type; /* element type */
u_int cp_unit; /* logical unit of element */
u_int cp_flags; /* misc. flags */
The cp_flags field may be set to
CP_INVERT
to invert the picker during the
operation.
CHIOGPICKER
- (int) Return the logical address of the current
picker.
CHIOSPICKER
- (int) Select the picker specified by the given
logical address.
CHIOGPARAMS
- (struct changer_params) Return the configuration
parameters for the media changer. This ioctl fills the changer_params
structure passed by the user with at least the following fields:
u_int cp_npickers; /* number of pickers */
u_int cp_nslots; /* number of slots */
u_int cp_nportals; /* number of import/export portals */
u_int cp_ndrives; /* number of drives */
This call can be used by applications to query the dimensions
of the jukebox before using the CHIGSTATUS
ioctl
to query the jukebox status.
CHIOIELEM
- Perform the INITIALIZE ELEMENT STATUS call on the media
changer device. This forces the media changer to update its internal
status information with respect to loaded media. It also scans any barcode
labels provided that it has a label reader. The
ch
driver's status is not affected by this call.
CHIOGSTATUS
- (struct changer_element_status_request) Perform the
READ ELEMENT STATUS call on the media changer device.
This call reads the element status information of the media changer and
converts it to an array of changer_element_status
structures.
With each call to CHIOGSTATUS
, the
status of one or more elements of one type may be queried.
The application passes a
changer_element_status_request structure to the
ch
driver which contains the following
fields:
u_int cesr_element_type;
u_int cesr_element_base;
u_int cesr_element_count;
u_int cesr_flags;
struct changer_element_status *cesr_element_status;
This structure is read by the driver to determine the type,
logical base address and number of elements for which information is to
be returned in the array of changer_element_status
structures pointed to by the cesr_element_status
field. The application must allocate enough memory for
cesr_element_count status structures (see below).
The cesr_flags can optionally be set to
CESR_VOLTAGS
to indicate that volume tag (bar
code) information is to be read from the jukebox and returned.
The cesr_element_base and
cesr_element_count fields must be valid with
respect to the physical configuration of the changer. If they are not,
the CHIOGSTATUS
ioctl returns the
EINVAL
error code.
The information about the elements is returned in an array of
changer_element_status structures. This structure
include at least the following fields:
u_int ces_addr; /* element address in media changer */
u_char ces_flags; /* see CESTATUS definitions below */
u_char ces_sensecode; /* additional sense code for element */
u_char ces_sensequal; /* additional sense code qualifier */
u_char ces_invert; /* invert bit */
u_char ces_svalid; /* source address (ces_source) valid */
u_short ces_source; /* source address of medium */
changer_voltag_t ces_pvoltag; /* primary volume tag */
changer_voltag_t ces_avoltag; /* alternate volume tag */
u_char ces_idvalid; /* ces_scsi_id is valid */
u_char ces_scsi_id; /* SCSI id of element (if ces_idvalid is nonzero) */
u_char ces_lunvalid; /* ces_scsi_lun is valid */
u_char ces_scsi_lun; /* SCSI lun of element (if ces_lunvalid is nonzero) */
The ces_addr field contains the address
of the element in the coordinate system of the media changer. It is not
used by the driver, and should be used for diagnostic purposes only.
The following flags are defined for the
ces_flags field:
CESTATUS_FULL
- A medium is present.
CESTATUS_IMPEXP
- The medium has been deposited by the operator (and not by a
picker).
CESTATUS_EXCEPT
- The element is in an exceptional state (e.g. invalid barcode label,
barcode not yet scanned).
CESTATUS_ACCESS
- The element is accessible by the picker.
CESTATUS_EXENAB
- The element supports medium export.
CESTATUS_INENAB
- The element supports medium import.
Note that not all flags are valid for all element types.
This version of the ch
driver has been tested with a DEC
TZ875 (5 slot, one DLT drive) and a Breece Hill Q47 (60 slot, four DLT drives,
barcode reader).
Many of the features the ch
driver
supports are not thoroughly tested due to the fact that the devices
available for testing do not support the necessary commands. This is true
for alternate volume tags, media flipping, import/export element handling,
multiple picker operation and other things.
- /dev/ch[0-9]
- device entries
If the media changer does not support features requested by the
ch
driver, it will produce both console error messages
and failure return codes to the ioctls described here.
The ch
driver appeared in
386BSD-0.1.