<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML ><HEAD ><TITLE >Introduction</TITLE ><META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="Modular DocBook HTML Stylesheet Version 1.7"><LINK REL="HOME" TITLE="The Linux 2.4 SCSI subsystem HOWTO" HREF="index.html"><LINK REL="PREVIOUS" TITLE="The Linux 2.4 SCSI subsystem HOWTO" HREF="index.html"><LINK REL="NEXT" TITLE="Architectural Overview" HREF="arch.html"></HEAD ><BODY CLASS="chapter" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#000000" LINK="#0000FF" VLINK="#840084" ALINK="#0000FF" ><DIV CLASS="NAVHEADER" ><TABLE SUMMARY="Header navigation table" WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" ><TR ><TH COLSPAN="3" ALIGN="center" >The Linux 2.4 SCSI subsystem HOWTO</TH ></TR ><TR ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="bottom" ><A HREF="index.html" ACCESSKEY="P" >Prev</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="80%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="bottom" ></TD ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="bottom" ><A HREF="arch.html" ACCESSKEY="N" >Next</A ></TD ></TR ></TABLE ><HR ALIGN="LEFT" WIDTH="100%"></DIV ><DIV CLASS="chapter" ><H1 ><A NAME="intro" ></A >Chapter 1. Introduction</H1 ><P > This document describes the SCSI subsystem as the Linux kernel enters the 2.4 production series. </P ><P > An external view of the SCSI subsystem is the main theme. Material is included to help the system administration of the Linux SCSI subsystem. There are also brief descriptions of ioctl()s and interfaces that may be relevant to those writing applications that use this subsystem. However internal data structures and design issues are not addressed [see reference <A HREF="refs.html#W2" >W2</A >]. To unclutter the presentation, compile options and system calls (including ioctl()s) have been placed in <A HREF="compileopt.html" >Appendix E</A >. Although not strictly part of the SCSI subsystem, there is also a description of raw devices in <A HREF="rawdev.html" >Chapter 11</A >. </P ><P > For those who have no interest in the SCSI subsystem and just want to get their ATAPI cd writer going, see <A HREF="sr.html#sratapi" >Section 9.2.4</A >. It may also be useful to browse <A HREF="arch.html" >Chapter 2</A >. </P ><P > This document follows on from one written five years ago by Drew Eckhardt called the SCSI-HOWTO [see reference <A HREF="refs.html#W7" >W7</A >]. That document described the SCSI subsystem in Linux kernel 1.2 and 1.3 series. It is still available from the Linux Documentation Project [LDP, see reference <A HREF="refs.html#W8" >W8</A >] in its "unmaintained" section. Both documents have roughly similar structures although Drew's document has a lot of information on the adapter drivers. </P ><P > This document can be found in electronic form at <A HREF="http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/SCSI-2.4-HOWTO" TARGET="_top" > <TT CLASS="literal" >www.tldp.org/HOWTO/SCSI-2.4-HOWTO</TT ></A >. The home site and perhaps the most up to date version of this document can be found at <A HREF="http://www.torque.net/scsi/SCSI-2.4-HOWTO" TARGET="_top" > <TT CLASS="literal" >www.torque.net/scsi/SCSI-2.4-HOWTO</TT ></A > (this is the multi-page html version). At that location this document is rendered in txt, pdf, ps, a single (long) page of html as well as multi-page html. For example, a pdf version is at <A HREF="http://www.torque.net/scsi/SCSI-2.4-HOWTO.pdf" TARGET="_top" > <TT CLASS="literal" >www.torque.net/scsi/SCSI-2.4-HOWTO.pdf</TT ></A >). </P ><P > This document was last altered on 24th August 2004. </P ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="NAVFOOTER" ><HR ALIGN="LEFT" WIDTH="100%"><TABLE SUMMARY="Footer navigation table" WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" ><TR ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="index.html" ACCESSKEY="P" >Prev</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="34%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="index.html" ACCESSKEY="H" >Home</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="arch.html" ACCESSKEY="N" >Next</A ></TD ></TR ><TR ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" >The Linux 2.4 SCSI subsystem HOWTO</TD ><TD WIDTH="34%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" > </TD ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" >Architectural Overview</TD ></TR ></TABLE ></DIV ></BODY ></HTML >