ioctl(2) - NetBSD Manual Pages

IOCTL(2)                  NetBSD Programmer's Manual                  IOCTL(2)


NAME

     ioctl - control device


LIBRARY

     Standard C Library (libc, -lc)


SYNOPSIS

     #include <sys/ioctl.h>

     int
     ioctl(int d, unsigned long request, void *argp);


DESCRIPTION

     The ioctl() function manipulates the underlying device parameters of spe-
     cial 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.

     An  ioctl request has encoded in it whether the argument is an ``in'' pa-
     rameter 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 VALUES

     If an error has occurred, a value of -1 is returned and errno is set to
     indicate the error.


ERRORS

     ioctl() will fail if:

     [EBADF]       d is not a valid descriptor.

     [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.

     [EINVAL]      request or argp is not valid.


SEE ALSO

     mt(1), execve(2), fcntl(2), tty(4), intro(4)


HISTORY

     An ioctl() function call appeared in Version 7 AT&T UNIX.

NetBSD 1.5                     December 11, 1993                             1