Name
ioctl — control device
Synopsis
#include <sys/ioctl.h>
int
ioctl( |
int |
d, |
| |
int |
request, |
| |
|
...); |
DESCRIPTION
The ioctl() function
manipulates the underlying device parameters of special
files. In particular, many operating characteristics of
character special files (e.g. terminals) may be controlled
with ioctl() requests. The
argument d must be an
open file descriptor.
The second argument is a device-dependent request code.
The third argument is an untyped pointer to memory. It's
traditionally char *argp (from the days before
void * was valid C),
and will be so named for this discussion.
An ioctl() request has encoded in it
whether the argument is an in parameter or out parameter, and the size
of the argument argp in bytes. Macros and
defines used in specifying an ioctl() request are located in the file
<sys/ioctl.h>.
RETURN VALUE
Usually, on success zero is returned. A few ioctl() requests use the return value as an
output parameter and return a non-negative value on success.
On error, −1 is returned, and errno is set appropriately.
ERRORS
- EBADF
-
d is not a
valid descriptor.
- EFAULT
-
argp
references an inaccessible memory area.
- EINVAL
-
Request or
argp is not
valid.
- ENOTTY
-
d is not
associated with a character special device.
- ENOTTY
-
The specified request does not apply to the kind of
object that the descriptor d references.
CONFORMING TO
No single standard. Arguments, returns, and semantics of
ioctl(2) vary according to
the device driver in question (the call is used as a
catch-all for operations that don't cleanly fit the Unix
stream I/O model). See ioctl_list(2) for a list of
many of the known ioctl()
calls. The ioctl() function
call appeared in Version 7 AT&T Unix.
NOTES
In order to use this call, one needs an open file
descriptor. Often the open(2) call has unwanted
side effects, that can be avoided under Linux by giving it
the O_NONBLOCK flag.
SEE ALSO
execve(2), fcntl(2), ioctl_list(2), open(2), sd(4), tty(4)
Copyright (c) 1980, 1991 Regents of the University of California.
All rights reserved.
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must display the following acknowledgement:
This product includes software developed by the University of
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THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
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ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
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@(#)ioctl.2
6.4 (Berkeley) 3/10/91
Modified 1993-07-23 by Rik Faith <faith@cs.unc.edu>
Modified 1996-10-22 by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>
Modified 1999-06-25 by Rachael Munns <vashti@dream.org.uk>
Modified 2000-09-21 by Andries Brouwer <aeb@cwi.nl>
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