xref: /freebsd-14.2/lib/libc/sys/ioctl.2 (revision fffcbbcd)
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32.\"     @(#)ioctl.2	8.2 (Berkeley) 12/11/93
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34.\" $FreeBSD$
35.\"
36.Dd December 11, 1993
37.Dt IOCTL 2
38.Os
39.Sh NAME
40.Nm ioctl
41.Nd control device
42.Sh LIBRARY
43.Lb libc
44.Sh SYNOPSIS
45.Fd #include <sys/ioctl.h>
46.Ft int
47.Fn ioctl "int d" "unsigned long request" ...
48.Sh DESCRIPTION
49The
50.Fn ioctl
51function manipulates the underlying device parameters of special files.
52In particular, many operating
53characteristics of character special files (e.g. terminals)
54may be controlled with
55.Fn ioctl
56requests.
57The argument
58.Fa d
59must be an open file descriptor.
60.Pp
61The third argument to
62.Nm
63is traditionally named
64.Ar "char *argp" .
65Most uses of
66.Nm
67in
68.Fx 3.0
69however, require the third argument to be a
70.Ar caddr_t
71or an
72.Ar int .
73.Pp
74An  ioctl
75.Fa request
76has encoded in it whether the argument is an
77.Dq in
78parameter
79or
80.Dq out
81parameter, and the size of the argument
82.Fa argp
83in bytes.
84Macros and defines used in specifying an ioctl
85.Fa request
86are located in the file
87.Ao Pa sys/ioctl.h Ac .
88.Sh IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
89In the non-threaded library
90.Fn ioctl
91is implemented as the
92.Va ioctl
93syscall.
94.Pp
95In the threaded library, the
96.Va ioctl
97syscall is assembled to
98.Fn _thread_sys_ioctl
99and
100.Fn ioctl
101is implemented as a function which locks
102.Va d
103for read and write, then calls
104.Fn _thread_sys_ioctl .
105Before returning,
106.Fn ioctl
107unlocks
108.Va d .
109.Sh RETURN VALUES
110If an error has occurred, a value of -1 is returned and
111.Va errno
112is set to indicate the error.
113.Sh ERRORS
114.Fn Ioctl
115will fail if:
116.Bl -tag -width Er
117.It Bq Er EBADF
118.Fa d
119is not a valid descriptor.
120.It Bq Er ENOTTY
121.Fa d
122is not associated with a character
123special device.
124.It Bq Er ENOTTY
125The specified request does not apply to the kind
126of object that the descriptor
127.Fa d
128references.
129.It Bq Er EINVAL
130.Fa Request
131or
132.Fa argp
133is not valid.
134.El
135.Sh SEE ALSO
136.Xr mt 1 ,
137.Xr execve 2 ,
138.Xr fcntl 2 ,
139.Xr intro 4 ,
140.Xr tty 4
141.Sh HISTORY
142An
143.Fn ioctl
144function call appeared in
145.At v7 .
146