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<H1>IOCTL</H1>
Section: Linux Programmer's Manual (2)<BR>Updated: 2017-05-03<BR><A HREF="#index">Index</A>
<A HREF="/cgi-bin/man/man2html">Return to Main Contents</A><HR>
<A NAME="lbAB">&nbsp;</A>
<H2>NAME</H2>
ioctl - control device
<A NAME="lbAC">&nbsp;</A>
<H2>SYNOPSIS</H2>
<B>#include &lt;<A HREF="file:///usr/include/sys/ioctl.h">sys/ioctl.h</A>&gt;</B>
<P>
<B>int ioctl(int </B><I>fd</I><B>, unsigned long </B><I>request</I><B>, ...);</B>
<A NAME="lbAD">&nbsp;</A>
<H2>DESCRIPTION</H2>
The
<B>ioctl</B>()
system call manipulates the underlying device parameters of special files.
In particular, many operating characteristics of character special files
(e.g., terminals) may be controlled with
<B>ioctl</B>()
requests.
The argument
<I>fd</I>
must be an open file descriptor.
<P>
The second argument is a device-dependent request code.
The third argument is an untyped pointer to memory.
It's traditionally
<B>char *</B><I>argp</I>
(from the days before
<B>void *</B>
was valid C), and will be so named for this discussion.
<P>
An
<B>ioctl</B>()
<I>request</I>
has encoded in it whether the argument is an
<I>in</I>
parameter or
<I>out</I>
parameter, and the size of the argument
<I>argp</I>
in bytes.
Macros and defines used in specifying an
<B>ioctl</B>()
<I>request</I>
are located in the file
<I>&lt;<A HREF="file:///usr/include/sys/ioctl.h">sys/ioctl.h</A>&gt;</I>.
<A NAME="lbAE">&nbsp;</A>
<H2>RETURN VALUE</H2>
Usually, on success zero is returned.
A few
<B>ioctl</B>()
requests use the return value as an output parameter
and return a nonnegative value on success.
On error, -1 is returned, and
<I>errno</I>
is set appropriately.
<A NAME="lbAF">&nbsp;</A>
<H2>ERRORS</H2>
<DL COMPACT>
<DT id="1"><B>EBADF</B>
<DD>
<I>fd</I>
is not a valid file descriptor.
<DT id="2"><B>EFAULT</B>
<DD>
<I>argp</I>
references an inaccessible memory area.
<DT id="3"><B>EINVAL</B>
<DD>
<I>request</I>
or
<I>argp</I>
is not valid.
<DT id="4"><B>ENOTTY</B>
<DD>
<I>fd</I>
is not associated with a character special device.
<DT id="5"><B>ENOTTY</B>
<DD>
The specified request does not apply to the kind of object that the
file descriptor
<I>fd</I>
references.
</DL>
<A NAME="lbAG">&nbsp;</A>
<H2>CONFORMING TO</H2>
No single standard.
Arguments, returns, and semantics of
<B>ioctl</B>()
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
<B><A HREF="/cgi-bin/man/man2html?2+ioctl_list">ioctl_list</A></B>(2)
for a list of many of the known
<B>ioctl</B>()
calls.
The
<B>ioctl</B>()
system call appeared in Version 7 AT&amp;T UNIX.
<A NAME="lbAH">&nbsp;</A>
<H2>NOTES</H2>
In order to use this call, one needs an open file descriptor.
Often the
<B><A HREF="/cgi-bin/man/man2html?2+open">open</A></B>(2)
call has unwanted side effects, that can be avoided under Linux
by giving it the
<B>O_NONBLOCK</B>
flag.
<A NAME="lbAI">&nbsp;</A>
<H2>SEE ALSO</H2>
<B><A HREF="/cgi-bin/man/man2html?2+execve">execve</A></B>(2),
<B><A HREF="/cgi-bin/man/man2html?2+fcntl">fcntl</A></B>(2),
<B><A HREF="/cgi-bin/man/man2html?2+ioctl_console">ioctl_console</A></B>(2),
<B><A HREF="/cgi-bin/man/man2html?2+ioctl_fat">ioctl_fat</A></B>(2),
<B><A HREF="/cgi-bin/man/man2html?2+ioctl_ficlonerange">ioctl_ficlonerange</A></B>(2),
<B><A HREF="/cgi-bin/man/man2html?2+ioctl_fideduperange">ioctl_fideduperange</A></B>(2),
<B><A HREF="/cgi-bin/man/man2html?2+ioctl_getfsmap">ioctl_getfsmap</A></B>(2),
<B><A HREF="/cgi-bin/man/man2html?2+ioctl_iflags">ioctl_iflags</A></B>(2),
<B><A HREF="/cgi-bin/man/man2html?2+ioctl_list">ioctl_list</A></B>(2),
<B><A HREF="/cgi-bin/man/man2html?2+ioctl_ns">ioctl_ns</A></B>(2),
<B><A HREF="/cgi-bin/man/man2html?2+ioctl_tty">ioctl_tty</A></B>(2),
<B><A HREF="/cgi-bin/man/man2html?2+ioctl_userfaultfd">ioctl_userfaultfd</A></B>(2),
<B><A HREF="/cgi-bin/man/man2html?2+open">open</A></B>(2),
<B><A HREF="/cgi-bin/man/man2html?4+sd">sd</A></B>(4),
<B><A HREF="/cgi-bin/man/man2html?4+tty">tty</A></B>(4)
<A NAME="lbAJ">&nbsp;</A>
<H2>COLOPHON</H2>
This page is part of release 5.05 of the Linux
<I>man-pages</I>
project.
A description of the project,
information about reporting bugs,
and the latest version of this page,
can be found at
<A HREF="https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.">https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.</A>
<P>
<HR>
<A NAME="index">&nbsp;</A><H2>Index</H2>
<DL>
<DT id="6"><A HREF="#lbAB">NAME</A><DD>
<DT id="7"><A HREF="#lbAC">SYNOPSIS</A><DD>
<DT id="8"><A HREF="#lbAD">DESCRIPTION</A><DD>
<DT id="9"><A HREF="#lbAE">RETURN VALUE</A><DD>
<DT id="10"><A HREF="#lbAF">ERRORS</A><DD>
<DT id="11"><A HREF="#lbAG">CONFORMING TO</A><DD>
<DT id="12"><A HREF="#lbAH">NOTES</A><DD>
<DT id="13"><A HREF="#lbAI">SEE ALSO</A><DD>
<DT id="14"><A HREF="#lbAJ">COLOPHON</A><DD>
</DL>
<HR>
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