.\" $OpenBSD: ioctl.2,v 1.18 2014/06/27 21:06:33 matthew Exp $ .\" $NetBSD: ioctl.2,v 1.5 1995/02/27 12:33:47 cgd Exp $ .\" .\" Copyright (c) 1980, 1991, 1993 .\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. .\" .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions .\" are met: .\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. .\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the .\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. .\" 3. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors .\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software .\" without specific prior written permission. .\" .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND .\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE .\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE .\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE .\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL .\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS .\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) .\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT .\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY .\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF .\" SUCH DAMAGE. .\" .\" @(#)ioctl.2 8.2 (Berkeley) 12/11/93 .\" .Dd $Mdocdate: June 27 2014 $ .Dt IOCTL 2 .Os .Sh NAME .Nm ioctl .Nd control device .Sh SYNOPSIS .In sys/ioctl.h .Ft int .Fn ioctl "int d" "unsigned long request" "..." .Sh DESCRIPTION The .Fn 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 .Fn ioctl requests. .Pp The argument .Fa d must be an open file descriptor. The third argument is called .Fa arg and contains additional information needed by this device to perform the requested function. .Fa arg is either an .Li int or a pointer to a device-specific data structure, depending upon the given .Fa request . .Pp An .Nm .Fa request has encoded in it whether the argument is an .Dq in parameter or .Dq out parameter, and the size of the third argument .Pq Fa arg in bytes. Macros and defines used in specifying an ioctl .Fa request are located in the file .In sys/ioctl.h . .Sh GENERIC IOCTLS Some ioctls are applicable to any file descriptor. These include: .Bl -tag -width "xxxxxx" .It Dv FIOCLEX Set close-on-exec flag. The file will be closed when .Xr exec 3 is invoked. .It Dv FIONCLEX Clear close-on-exec flag. The file will remain open across .Xr exec 3 . .El .Pp Some generic ioctls are not implemented for all types of file descriptors. These include: .Bl -tag -width "xxxxxx" .It Dv FIONREAD Fa "int *" Get the number of bytes that are immediately available for reading. .It Dv FIONBIO Fa "int *" Set non-blocking I/O mode if the argument is non-zero. In non-blocking mode, .Xr read 2 or .Xr write 2 calls return \-1 and set .Va errno to .Er EAGAIN immediately when no data is available. .It Dv FIOASYNC Fa "int *" Set asynchronous I/O mode if the argument is non-zero. In asynchronous mode, the process or process group specified by .Dv FIOSETOWN will start receiving .Dv SIGIO signals when data is available. The .Dv SIGIO signal will be delivered when data is available on the file descriptor. .It Dv FIOSETOWN, FIOGETOWN Fa "int *" Set/get the process or the process group (if negative) that should receive .Dv SIGIO signals when data is available. .El .Sh RETURN VALUES If an error has occurred, a value of \-1 is returned and .Va errno is set to indicate the error. .Sh ERRORS .Fn ioctl will fail if: .Bl -tag -width Er .It Bq Er EBADF .Fa d is not a valid descriptor. .It Bq Er ENOTTY .Fa d is not associated with a character special device. .It Bq Er ENOTTY The specified request does not apply to the kind of object that the descriptor .Fa d references. .It Bq Er EINVAL .Fa request or .Fa arg is not valid. .It Bq Er EFAULT .Fa arg points outside the process's allocated address space. .El .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr cdio 1 , .Xr chio 1 , .Xr mt 1 , .Xr execve 2 , .Xr fcntl 2 , .Xr intro 4 , .Xr tty 4 .Sh HISTORY An .Fn ioctl function call appeared in .At v7 .