</sect2>
</sect1>
+ <sect1>
+ <title>Error handling</title>
+
+ <para>
+ This chapter describes how errors are handled under libata.
+ Readers are advised to read SCSI EH
+ (Documentation/scsi/scsi_eh.txt) and ATA exceptions doc first.
+ </para>
+
+ <sect2><title>Origins of commands</title>
+ <para>
+ In libata, a command is represented with struct ata_queued_cmd
+ or qc. qc's are preallocated during port initialization and
+ repetitively used for command executions. Currently only one
+ qc is allocated per port but yet-to-be-merged NCQ branch
+ allocates one for each tag and maps each qc to NCQ tag 1-to-1.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ libata commands can originate from two sources - libata itself
+ and SCSI midlayer. libata internal commands are used for
+ initialization and error handling. All normal blk requests
+ and commands for SCSI emulation are passed as SCSI commands
+ through queuecommand callback of SCSI host template.
+ </para>
+ </sect2>
+
+ <sect2><title>How commands are issued</title>
+
+ <variablelist>
+
+ <varlistentry><term>Internal commands</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ First, qc is allocated and initialized using
+ ata_qc_new_init(). Although ata_qc_new_init() doesn't
+ implement any wait or retry mechanism when qc is not
+ available, internal commands are currently issued only during
+ initialization and error recovery, so no other command is
+ active and allocation is guaranteed to succeed.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Once allocated qc's taskfile is initialized for the command to
+ be executed. qc currently has two mechanisms to notify
+ completion. One is via qc->complete_fn() callback and the
+ other is completion qc->waiting. qc->complete_fn() callback
+ is the asynchronous path used by normal SCSI translated
+ commands and qc->waiting is the synchronous (issuer sleeps in
+ process context) path used by internal commands.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Once initialization is complete, host_set lock is acquired
+ and the qc is issued.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry><term>SCSI commands</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ All libata drivers use ata_scsi_queuecmd() as
+ hostt->queuecommand callback. scmds can either be simulated
+ or translated. No qc is involved in processing a simulated
+ scmd. The result is computed right away and the scmd is
+ completed.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ For a translated scmd, ata_qc_new_init() is invoked to
+ allocate a qc and the scmd is translated into the qc. SCSI
+ midlayer's completion notification function pointer is stored
+ into qc->scsidone.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ qc->complete_fn() callback is used for completion
+ notification. ATA commands use ata_scsi_qc_complete() while
+ ATAPI commands use atapi_qc_complete(). Both functions end up
+ calling qc->scsidone to notify upper layer when the qc is
+ finished. After translation is completed, the qc is issued
+ with ata_qc_issue().
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Note that SCSI midlayer invokes hostt->queuecommand while
+ holding host_set lock, so all above occur while holding
+ host_set lock.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ </variablelist>
+ </sect2>
+
+ <sect2><title>How commands are processed</title>
+ <para>
+ Depending on which protocol and which controller are used,
+ commands are processed differently. For the purpose of
+ discussion, a controller which uses taskfile interface and all
+ standard callbacks is assumed.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Currently 6 ATA command protocols are used. They can be
+ sorted into the following four categories according to how
+ they are processed.
+ </para>
+
+ <variablelist>
+ <varlistentry><term>ATA NO DATA or DMA</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ ATA_PROT_NODATA and ATA_PROT_DMA fall into this category.
+ These types of commands don't require any software
+ intervention once issued. Device will raise interrupt on
+ completion.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry><term>ATA PIO</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ ATA_PROT_PIO is in this category. libata currently
+ implements PIO with polling. ATA_NIEN bit is set to turn
+ off interrupt and pio_task on ata_wq performs polling and
+ IO.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry><term>ATAPI NODATA or DMA</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ ATA_PROT_ATAPI_NODATA and ATA_PROT_ATAPI_DMA are in this
+ category. packet_task is used to poll BSY bit after
+ issuing PACKET command. Once BSY is turned off by the
+ device, packet_task transfers CDB and hands off processing
+ to interrupt handler.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry><term>ATAPI PIO</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ ATA_PROT_ATAPI is in this category. ATA_NIEN bit is set
+ and, as in ATAPI NODATA or DMA, packet_task submits cdb.
+ However, after submitting cdb, further processing (data
+ transfer) is handed off to pio_task.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ </variablelist>
+ </sect2>
+
+ <sect2><title>How commands are completed</title>
+ <para>
+ Once issued, all qc's are either completed with
+ ata_qc_complete() or time out. For commands which are handled
+ by interrupts, ata_host_intr() invokes ata_qc_complete(), and,
+ for PIO tasks, pio_task invokes ata_qc_complete(). In error
+ cases, packet_task may also complete commands.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ ata_qc_complete() does the following.
+ </para>
+
+ <orderedlist>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ DMA memory is unmapped.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ ATA_QCFLAG_ACTIVE is clared from qc->flags.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ qc->complete_fn() callback is invoked. If the return value of
+ the callback is not zero. Completion is short circuited and
+ ata_qc_complete() returns.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ __ata_qc_complete() is called, which does
+ <orderedlist>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ qc->flags is cleared to zero.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ ap->active_tag and qc->tag are poisoned.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ qc->waiting is claread & completed (in that order).
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ qc is deallocated by clearing appropriate bit in ap->qactive.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ </orderedlist>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ </orderedlist>
+
+ <para>
+ So, it basically notifies upper layer and deallocates qc. One
+ exception is short-circuit path in #3 which is used by
+ atapi_qc_complete().
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ For all non-ATAPI commands, whether it fails or not, almost
+ the same code path is taken and very little error handling
+ takes place. A qc is completed with success status if it
+ succeeded, with failed status otherwise.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ However, failed ATAPI commands require more handling as
+ REQUEST SENSE is needed to acquire sense data. If an ATAPI
+ command fails, ata_qc_complete() is invoked with error status,
+ which in turn invokes atapi_qc_complete() via
+ qc->complete_fn() callback.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ This makes atapi_qc_complete() set scmd->result to
+ SAM_STAT_CHECK_CONDITION, complete the scmd and return 1. As
+ the sense data is empty but scmd->result is CHECK CONDITION,
+ SCSI midlayer will invoke EH for the scmd, and returning 1
+ makes ata_qc_complete() to return without deallocating the qc.
+ This leads us to ata_scsi_error() with partially completed qc.
+ </para>
+
+ </sect2>
+
+ <sect2><title>ata_scsi_error()</title>
+ <para>
+ ata_scsi_error() is the current hostt->eh_strategy_handler()
+ for libata. As discussed above, this will be entered in two
+ cases - timeout and ATAPI error completion. This function
+ calls low level libata driver's eng_timeout() callback, the
+ standard callback for which is ata_eng_timeout(). It checks
+ if a qc is active and calls ata_qc_timeout() on the qc if so.
+ Actual error handling occurs in ata_qc_timeout().
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ If EH is invoked for timeout, ata_qc_timeout() stops BMDMA and
+ completes the qc. Note that as we're currently in EH, we
+ cannot call scsi_done. As described in SCSI EH doc, a
+ recovered scmd should be either retried with
+ scsi_queue_insert() or finished with scsi_finish_command().
+ Here, we override qc->scsidone with scsi_finish_command() and
+ calls ata_qc_complete().
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ If EH is invoked due to a failed ATAPI qc, the qc here is
+ completed but not deallocated. The purpose of this
+ half-completion is to use the qc as place holder to make EH
+ code reach this place. This is a bit hackish, but it works.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Once control reaches here, the qc is deallocated by invoking
+ __ata_qc_complete() explicitly. Then, internal qc for REQUEST
+ SENSE is issued. Once sense data is acquired, scmd is
+ finished by directly invoking scsi_finish_command() on the
+ scmd. Note that as we already have completed and deallocated
+ the qc which was associated with the scmd, we don't need
+ to/cannot call ata_qc_complete() again.
+ </para>
+
+ </sect2>
+
+ <sect2><title>Problems with the current EH</title>
+
+ <itemizedlist>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Error representation is too crude. Currently any and all
+ error conditions are represented with ATA STATUS and ERROR
+ registers. Errors which aren't ATA device errors are treated
+ as ATA device errors by setting ATA_ERR bit. Better error
+ descriptor which can properly represent ATA and other
+ errors/exceptions is needed.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ When handling timeouts, no action is taken to make device
+ forget about the timed out command and ready for new commands.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ EH handling via ata_scsi_error() is not properly protected
+ from usual command processing. On EH entrance, the device is
+ not in quiescent state. Timed out commands may succeed or
+ fail any time. pio_task and atapi_task may still be running.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Too weak error recovery. Devices / controllers causing HSM
+ mismatch errors and other errors quite often require reset to
+ return to known state. Also, advanced error handling is
+ necessary to support features like NCQ and hotplug.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ ATA errors are directly handled in the interrupt handler and
+ PIO errors in pio_task. This is problematic for advanced
+ error handling for the following reasons.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ First, advanced error handling often requires context and
+ internal qc execution.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Second, even a simple failure (say, CRC error) needs
+ information gathering and could trigger complex error handling
+ (say, resetting & reconfiguring). Having multiple code
+ paths to gather information, enter EH and trigger actions
+ makes life painful.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Third, scattered EH code makes implementing low level drivers
+ difficult. Low level drivers override libata callbacks. If
+ EH is scattered over several places, each affected callbacks
+ should perform its part of error handling. This can be error
+ prone and painful.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ </itemizedlist>
+ </sect2>
+
+ </sect1>
</chapter>
<chapter id="libataExt">
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