>> this is a fascinating idea
>
>A good idea, agreed, but imho committed a bit too quickly.
>If you look at the SCSI specs - there is a distinction between
>a "primary" and a "grown" defect list.

i didn't see anything related to scsi here:

	Modified Files:
		src/sys/dev/ata: wd.c wdvar.h
		src/sys/sys: disk.h dkio.h

granted, i'm not an expert, but that looks like regler wd disk stuff.

>One might want to make intelligent use of the related SCSI commands
>as "reassign block", and the defect list read commands; it would
>need means to control this.
>The ioctl data format should be fixed byte size, so that the list
>can be saved somewhere to survive reboots.
>So I'd say this needs some thoughts and study of prior art before
>the interface is set in stone.

meanwhile, i'd like to ask my dying drive which blocks it thinks are
toast, so that i can set about finding out which files are zorched and
tick them off on my list of casualties as i rerun backups.

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