bsd man page for ioctl

IOCTL(2)							System Calls Manual							  IOCTL(2)

NAME
       ioctl - control device

SYNOPSIS
       #include <sys/ioctl.h>

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

DESCRIPTION
       Ioctl  performs a variety of functions on open descriptors.  In particular, many operating characteristics of character special files (e.g.
       terminals) may be controlled with ioctl requests.  The writeups of various devices in section 4 discuss how ioctl applies to them.

       An  ioctl request has encoded in it whether the argument is an "in" parameter 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 VALUE
       If an error has occurred, a value of -1 is returned and errno is set to indicate the error.

ERRORS
       Ioctl will fail if one or more of the following are true:

       [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
       execve(2), fcntl(2), mt(4), tty(4), intro(4N)

4th Berkeley Distribution					   March 4, 1986							  IOCTL(2)