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.\"     @(#)ioctl.2	8.2 (Berkeley) 12/11/93
.\"
.\" $FreeBSD: src/lib/libc/sys/ioctl.2,v 1.7.2.7 2001/12/14 18:34:01 ru Exp $
.\" $DragonFly: src/lib/libc/sys/ioctl.2,v 1.4 2008/11/10 23:47:31 swildner Exp $
.\"
.Dd December 11, 1993
.Dt IOCTL 2
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm ioctl
.Nd control device
.Sh LIBRARY
.Lb libc
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.In sys/ioctl.h
.Ft int
.Fn ioctl "int d" "unsigned long request" ...
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Fn ioctl
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
.Fn ioctl
requests.
The argument
.Fa d
must be an open file descriptor.
.Pp
The third argument to
.Fn ioctl
is traditionally named
.Ar "char *argp" .
Most uses of
.Fn ioctl
however, require the third argument to be a
.Vt caddr_t
or an
.Vt int .
.Pp
An
.Fn ioctl
.Fa request
has encoded in it whether the argument is an
.Dq in
argument or
.Dq out
argument, and the size of the argument
.Fa argp
in bytes.
Macros and defines used in specifying an ioctl
.Fa request
are located in the file
.In sys/ioctl.h .
.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 argp
is not valid.
.It Bq Er EFAULT
.Fa argp
points outside the process's allocated address space.
.El
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr execve 2 ,
.Xr fcntl 2 ,
.Xr intro 4 ,
.Xr tty 4 ,
.Xr ioctl 9
.Sh HISTORY
An
.Fn ioctl
function call appeared in
.At v7 .