Re: [PATCH] scsi_error: Fix language abuse.

Douglas Gilbert
2008-02-09T01:33:23Z

Alan Cox wrote:
> The word "illegal" has a precise dictionary meaning of "prohibited by
> law".

Also "contrary to or forbidden by official rules, regulations, etc".
So word meanings are like standards, there are so many to choose
from.

The error messages are therefore incorrect as so far nobody has
> made SCSI violations a criminal offence.

Most USB mass storage implementations should result in jail
terms for the responsible parties.

> This corrects scsi to match various other subsystems I've slowly been
> ridding of this.
>
> Pedantically-signed-off-by: Alan Cox <alan@redhat.com>

Please don't do this.

> - {0x2004, "Illegal command while in write capable state"},
> + {0x2004, "Invalid command while in write capable state"},

Several reasons:
1) Those strings appear in an international standard.
In this case SPC-3 ANSI INCITS 408-2005.
2) The way that INCITS standard (and others) is structured,
the relevant part of the text refers to a specific
additional sense code + qualifier instance by _name_
(e.g. "Illegal command while in write capable state")
not by number (e.g. 0x20,0x4). So given the Alan Cox
rendition of that string in a log, a diligent debugger
would need to get to constants.c to find the corresponding
asc/ascq numeric sequence, then search Annex D of SPC-3
to find the t10.org version of that string, then search
the body of SPC-3 and other t10 device class specific
standards for a match on the t10 string.
Vendor product manuals would tend to use the t10.org
strings as well.
3) I maintain constants.c and I do that with the help
of a program that compares t10's tables (specifically
http://www.t10.org/lists/asc-num.txt ) with the table
in constants.c . I'm glad to send you a copy so you
can take over maintaining the sanitized list and
cope with the abuse that may follow.

If you feel strongly about this then you could take it
up with ANSI or BS (a great acronym IMO).

Doug Gilbert

> diff -u --new-file --recursive --exclude-from /usr/src/exclude linux.vanilla-2.6.24-mm1/drivers/scsi/constants.c linux-2.6.24-mm1/drivers/scsi/constants.c
> --- linux.vanilla-2.6.24-mm1/drivers/scsi/constants.c 2008-02-06 14:14:40.000000000 +0000
> +++ linux-2.6.24-mm1/drivers/scsi/constants.c 2008-02-06 14:35:16.000000000 +0000
> @@ -606,10 +606,10 @@
> {0x2001, "Access denied - initiator pending-enrolled"},
> {0x2002, "Access denied - no access rights"},
> {0x2003, "Access denied - invalid mgmt id key"},
> - {0x2004, "Illegal command while in write capable state"},
> + {0x2004, "Invalid command while in write capable state"},
> {0x2005, "Obsolete"},
> - {0x2006, "Illegal command while in explicit address mode"},
> - {0x2007, "Illegal command while in implicit address mode"},
> + {0x2006, "Invalid command while in explicit address mode"},
> + {0x2007, "Invalid command while in implicit address mode"},
> {0x2008, "Access denied - enrollment conflict"},
> {0x2009, "Access denied - invalid LU identifier"},
> {0x200A, "Access denied - invalid proxy token"},
> @@ -620,7 +620,7 @@
> {0x2102, "Invalid address for write"},
> {0x2103, "Invalid write crossing layer jump"},
>
> - {0x2200, "Illegal function (use 20 00, 24 00, or 26 00)"},
> + {0x2200, "Invalid function (use 20 00, 24 00, or 26 00)"},
>
> {0x2400, "Invalid field in cdb"},
> {0x2401, "CDB decryption error"},
> @@ -697,7 +697,7 @@
> {0x2C02, "Invalid combination of windows specified"},
> {0x2C03, "Current program area is not empty"},
> {0x2C04, "Current program area is empty"},
> - {0x2C05, "Illegal power condition request"},
> + {0x2C05, "Invalid power condition request"},
> {0x2C06, "Persistent prevent conflict"},
> {0x2C07, "Previous busy status"},
> {0x2C08, "Previous task set full status"},
> @@ -1014,7 +1014,7 @@
> {0x6300, "End of user area encountered on this track"},
> {0x6301, "Packet does not fit in available space"},
>
> - {0x6400, "Illegal mode for this track"},
> + {0x6400, "Invalid mode for this track"},
> {0x6401, "Invalid packet size"},
>
> {0x6500, "Voltage fault"},
> @@ -1124,7 +1124,7 @@
> "Not Ready", /* 2: The addressed target is not ready */
> "Medium Error", /* 3: Data error detected on the medium */
> "Hardware Error", /* 4: Controller or device failure */
> - "Illegal Request", /* 5: Error in request */
> + "Invalid Request", /* 5: Error in request */
> "Unit Attention", /* 6: Removable medium was changed, or
> the target has been reset, or ... */
> "Data Protect", /* 7: Access to the data is blocked */
> -
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