Both the most recent stable (5.40) and the most recent (5.41) versions suffer from the following defect. When I say something like: smartctl -l xerror /dev/sdc smartctl prints out the (empty) contents of extended error log of the device: smartctl 5.41 2011-06-09 r3365 [x86_64-linux-3.0.0-alb] (local build) Copyright (C) 2002-11 by Bruce Allen, http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net === START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION === SMART Extended Comprehensive Error Log Version: 1 (5 sectors) No Errors Logged When I pass the '-l xerror' option in the /etc/smartd.conf to smartd, the daemon complains in the syslog: Device: /dev/sdc, no Extended Comprehensive SMART Error Log, ignoring -l xerror (override with -T permissive) The device is Seagate ST3750640AS. Whether or not extended error logging is actually implemented in the drive, a user would expect the same behaviour of smartctl and smartd. I found this issue when analysed an actual (and non-trivial) extended comprehensive error log of a drive where I know for sure it is implemented (ST32000644NS). As a detail, this drive is behind a 3ware RAID controller so I had to specify '-d 3ware,<num> /dev/twa0'. In the latter case I observe no discrepancy, smartctl prints out the extended error log contents and smartd doesn't complain about it. I do not know what this difference is related to: the actual presence of the extended error log, its contents (it's non-empty) or the fact that device is behind a RAID controller. Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. smartctl -l xerror <device> 2. specify '-l xerror' in the smartd.conf and (re)start smartd 3. compare behaviour Actual Results: Behaviour differs Expected Results: If extended error logging is not implemented in the device, complain. If it is, dump it.
I found the culprit. In smartd.conf were also the '-d ata' specification. While the man page is a bit vague about this, '-d sat' is a correct specification for SATA drives, this specification is also implicitly used when I ran smartctl (without -d). Sorry about creating unnecessary noise. I am closing this bug as INVALID.
