xref: /dragonfly/lib/libc/sys/ioctl.2 (revision c37c9ab3)
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28.\"     @(#)ioctl.2	8.2 (Berkeley) 12/11/93
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30.\" $FreeBSD: src/lib/libc/sys/ioctl.2,v 1.7.2.7 2001/12/14 18:34:01 ru Exp $
31.\" $DragonFly: src/lib/libc/sys/ioctl.2,v 1.4 2008/11/10 23:47:31 swildner Exp $
32.\"
33.Dd December 11, 1993
34.Dt IOCTL 2
35.Os
36.Sh NAME
37.Nm ioctl
38.Nd control device
39.Sh LIBRARY
40.Lb libc
41.Sh SYNOPSIS
42.In sys/ioctl.h
43.Ft int
44.Fn ioctl "int d" "unsigned long request" ...
45.Sh DESCRIPTION
46The
47.Fn ioctl
48system call manipulates the underlying device parameters of special files.
49In particular, many operating
50characteristics of character special files (e.g.\& terminals)
51may be controlled with
52.Fn ioctl
53requests.
54The argument
55.Fa d
56must be an open file descriptor.
57.Pp
58The third argument to
59.Fn ioctl
60is traditionally named
61.Ar "char *argp" .
62Most uses of
63.Fn ioctl
64however, require the third argument to be a
65.Vt caddr_t
66or an
67.Vt int .
68.Pp
69An
70.Fn ioctl
71.Fa request
72has encoded in it whether the argument is an
73.Dq in
74argument or
75.Dq out
76argument, and the size of the argument
77.Fa argp
78in bytes.
79Macros and defines used in specifying an ioctl
80.Fa request
81are located in the file
82.In sys/ioctl.h .
83.Sh RETURN VALUES
84If an error has occurred, a value of -1 is returned and
85.Va errno
86is set to indicate the error.
87.Sh ERRORS
88.Fn Ioctl
89will fail if:
90.Bl -tag -width Er
91.It Bq Er EBADF
92.Fa d
93is not a valid descriptor.
94.It Bq Er ENOTTY
95.Fa d
96is not associated with a character
97special device.
98.It Bq Er ENOTTY
99The specified request does not apply to the kind
100of object that the descriptor
101.Fa d
102references.
103.It Bq Er EINVAL
104.Fa request
105or
106.Fa argp
107is not valid.
108.It Bq Er EFAULT
109.Fa argp
110points outside the process's allocated address space.
111.El
112.Sh SEE ALSO
113.Xr execve 2 ,
114.Xr fcntl 2 ,
115.Xr intro 4 ,
116.Xr tty 4 ,
117.Xr ioctl 9
118.Sh HISTORY
119An
120.Fn ioctl
121function call appeared in
122.At v7 .
123