Ralph, Gerry, and all,

In SPC-4 rev 4 in looking at the SECURITY PROTOCOL IN command, I have found that there is an inconsistency between where the length field is placed in both listed IN pages.  
In Table 175 — Supported security protocols SECURITY PROTOCOL IN parameter data, the length field is in bytes 6 & 7, but in Table 176 — Supported security protocols SECURITY PROTOCOL IN parameter data the length field is in bytes 2 & 3.  Likewise in the proposed Tape Data Encryption security protocol the length is also in bytes 2 & 3.

Having the length field in different bytes makes it very difficult for parsing.  In this case it requires that you know a priori what data is coming back.  The parser must be CDB aware and also must know about the specific security protocols in order to parse.  This seems like a very bad design to me.  Can we modify the location of the length bytes in Table 175 — Supported security protocols SECURITY PROTOCOL IN parameter data, to be in bytes 2 & 3 and not in bytes 6 & 7?

Thanks,

Kevin D. Butt
SCSI & Fibre Channel Architect, Tape Firmware
MS 6TYA, 9000 S. Rita Rd., Tucson, AZ 85744
Tel: 520-799-2869 / 520-799-5280
Fax: 520-799-2723 (T/L:321)
Email address: kdbutt@us.ibm.com
http://www-03.ibm.com/servers/storage/