tty_ioctl(4)



IOCTL_TTY(2)               Linux Programmer's Manual              IOCTL_TTY(2)

NAME
       ioctl_tty - ioctls for terminals and serial lines

SYNOPSIS
       #include <termios.h>

       int ioctl(int fd, int cmd, ...);

DESCRIPTION
       The  ioctl(2) call for terminals and serial ports accepts many possible
       command arguments.  Most require a third  argument,  of  varying  type,
       here called argp or arg.

       Use  of  ioctl makes for nonportable programs.  Use the POSIX interface
       described in termios(3) whenever possible.

   Get and set terminal attributes
       TCGETS    struct termios *argp
              Equivalent to tcgetattr(fd, argp).
              Get the current serial port settings.

       TCSETS    const struct termios *argp
              Equivalent to tcsetattr(fd, TCSANOW, argp).
              Set the current serial port settings.

       TCSETSW   const struct termios *argp
              Equivalent to tcsetattr(fd, TCSADRAIN, argp).
              Allow the output buffer to drain, and  set  the  current  serial
              port settings.

       TCSETSF   const struct termios *argp
              Equivalent to tcsetattr(fd, TCSAFLUSH, argp).
              Allow the output buffer to drain, discard pending input, and set
              the current serial port settings.

       The following four ioctls are just like TCGETS,  TCSETS,  TCSETSW,  TC-
       SETSF,  except  that  they  take  a struct termio * instead of a struct
       termios *.

              TCGETA    struct termio *argp

              TCSETA    const struct termio *argp

              TCSETAW   const struct termio *argp

              TCSETAF   const struct termio *argp

   Locking the termios structure
       The termios structure of a terminal can be locked.  The lock is  itself
       a  termios  structure,  with nonzero bits or fields indicating a locked
       value.

       TIOCGLCKTRMIOS struct termios *argp
              Gets the locking status of the termios structure of  the  termi-
              nal.

       TIOCSLCKTRMIOS const struct termios *argp
              Sets  the  locking status of the termios structure of the termi-
              nal.  Only a process with the CAP_SYS_ADMIN  capability  can  do
              this.

   Get and set window size
       Window sizes are kept in the kernel, but not used by the kernel (except
       in the case of virtual consoles, where the kernel will update the  win-
       dow  size when the size of the virtual console changes, for example, by
       loading a new font).

       The following constants and structure are defined in <sys/ioctl.h>.

       TIOCGWINSZ     struct winsize *argp
              Get window size.

       TIOCSWINSZ     const struct winsize *argp
              Set window size.

       The struct used by these ioctls is defined as

           struct winsize {
               unsigned short ws_row;
               unsigned short ws_col;
               unsigned short ws_xpixel;   /* unused */
               unsigned short ws_ypixel;   /* unused */
           };

       When the window size changes, a SIGWINCH signal is sent  to  the  fore-
       ground process group.

   Sending a break
       TCSBRK    int arg
              Equivalent to tcsendbreak(fd, arg).
              If  the terminal is using asynchronous serial data transmission,
              and arg is zero, then send a break (a stream of zero  bits)  for
              between  0.25  and  0.5  seconds.   If the terminal is not using
              asynchronous serial data transmission, then either  a  break  is
              sent,  or the function returns without doing anything.  When arg
              is nonzero, nobody knows what will happen.

              (SVr4, UnixWare, Solaris, Linux treat  tcsendbreak(fd,arg)  with
              nonzero arg like tcdrain(fd).  SunOS treats arg as a multiplier,
              and sends a stream of bits arg times as long as  done  for  zero
              arg.   DG/UX and AIX treat arg (when nonzero) as a time interval
              measured in milliseconds.  HP-UX ignores arg.)

       TCSBRKP   int arg
              So-called "POSIX version" of TCSBRK.  It treats nonzero arg as a
              timeinterval  measured in deciseconds, and does nothing when the
              driver does not support breaks.

       TIOCSBRK  void
              Turn break on, that is, start sending zero bits.

       TIOCCBRK  void
              Turn break off, that is, stop sending zero bits.

   Software flow control
       TCXONC    int arg
              Equivalent to tcflow(fd, arg).
              See tcflow(3) for the argument  values  TCOOFF,  TCOON,  TCIOFF,
              TCION.

   Buffer count and flushing
       FIONREAD  int *argp
              Get the number of bytes in the input buffer.

       TIOCINQ   int *argp
              Same as FIONREAD.

       TIOCOUTQ  int *argp
              Get the number of bytes in the output buffer.

       TCFLSH    int arg
              Equivalent to tcflush(fd, arg).
              See  tcflush(3)  for  the  argument  values  TCIFLUSH, TCOFLUSH,
              TCIOFLUSH.

   Faking input
       TIOCSTI   const char *argp
              Insert the given byte in the input queue.

   Redirecting console output
       TIOCCONS  void
              Redirect  output  that  would  have  gone  to  /dev/console   or
              /dev/tty0  to  the given terminal.  If that was a pseudoterminal
              master, send it to the slave.  In Linux before  version  2.6.10,
              anybody  can  do  this  as long as the output was not redirected
              yet; since version 2.6.10, only a process with the CAP_SYS_ADMIN
              capability  may do this.  If output was redirected already EBUSY
              is returned, but redirection can be stopped by using this  ioctl
              with fd pointing at /dev/console or /dev/tty0.

   Controlling terminal
       TIOCSCTTY int arg
              Make  the given terminal the controlling terminal of the calling
              process.  The calling process must be a session leader  and  not
              have  a controlling terminal already.  For this case, arg should
              be specified as zero.

              If this terminal is already the controlling terminal of  a  dif-
              ferent  session  group,  then the ioctl fails with EPERM, unless
              the caller has the CAP_SYS_ADMIN capability and arg equals 1, in
              which case the terminal is stolen, and all processes that had it
              as controlling terminal lose it.

       TIOCNOTTY void
              If the given terminal was the controlling terminal of the  call-
              ing  process, give up this controlling terminal.  If the process
              was session leader, then send SIGHUP and SIGCONT  to  the  fore-
              ground  process  group  and all processes in the current session
              lose their controlling terminal.

   Process group and session ID
       TIOCGPGRP pid_t *argp
              When successful, equivalent to *argp = tcgetpgrp(fd).
              Get the process group ID of the foreground process group on this
              terminal.

       TIOCSPGRP const pid_t *argp
              Equivalent to tcsetpgrp(fd, *argp).
              Set the foreground process group ID of this terminal.

       TIOCGSID  pid_t *argp
              Get  the  session ID of the given terminal.  This fails with the
              error ENOTTY if the terminal is not a master pseudoterminal  and
              not our controlling terminal.  Strange.

   Exclusive mode
       TIOCEXCL  void
              Put the terminal into exclusive mode.  No further open(2) opera-
              tions on the terminal are permitted.  (They fail with EBUSY, ex-
              cept for a process with the CAP_SYS_ADMIN capability.)

       TIOCGEXCL int *argp
              (since  Linux  3.8)  If  the  terminal is currently in exclusive
              mode, place a nonzero value in the location pointed to by  argp;
              otherwise, place zero in *argp.

       TIOCNXCL  void
              Disable exclusive mode.

   Line discipline
       TIOCGETD  int *argp
              Get the line discipline of the terminal.

       TIOCSETD  const int *argp
              Set the line discipline of the terminal.

   Pseudoterminal ioctls
       TIOCPKT   const int *argp
              Enable  (when  *argp is nonzero) or disable packet mode.  Can be
              applied to the master side of a pseudoterminal  only  (and  will
              return  ENOTTY  otherwise).   In  packet  mode,  each subsequent
              read(2) will return a packet that either contains a single  non-
              zero  control  byte,  or has a single byte containing zero (' ')
              followed by data written on the slave side of  the  pseudotermi-
              nal.   If the first byte is not TIOCPKT_DATA (0), it is an OR of
              one or more of the following bits:

              TIOCPKT_FLUSHREAD   The read queue for the terminal is flushed.
              TIOCPKT_FLUSHWRITE  The write queue for the terminal is flushed.
              TIOCPKT_STOP        Output to the terminal is stopped.
              TIOCPKT_START       Output to the terminal is restarted.
              TIOCPKT_DOSTOP      The start and stop characters are ^S/^Q.
              TIOCPKT_NOSTOP      The start and stop characters are not ^S/^Q.

              While this mode is in use, the presence of control status infor-
              mation  to be read from the master side may be detected by a se-
              lect(2) for exceptional conditions or a poll(2) for the  POLLPRI
              event.

              This mode is used by rlogin(1) and rlogind(8) to implement a re-
              mote-echoed, locally ^S/^Q flow-controlled remote login.

       TIOCGPKT  const int *argp
              (since Linux 3.8) Return the current packet mode setting in  the
              integer pointed to by argp.

       TIOCSPTLCK     int *argp
              Set (if *argp is nonzero) or remove (if *argp is zero) the pseu-
              doterminal slave device.  (See also unlockpt(3).)

       TIOCGPTLCK     int *argp
              (since Linux 3.8) Place the current lock state of the pseudoter-
              minal slave device in the location pointed to by argp.

       TIOCGPTPEER    int flags
              (since  Linux 4.13) Given a file descriptor in fd that refers to
              a pseudoterminal master,  open  (with  the  given  open(2)-style
              flags)  and return a new file descriptor that refers to the peer
              pseudoterminal slave device.  This operation  can  be  performed
              regardless of whether the pathname of the slave device is acces-
              sible through the calling process's mount namespace.

              Security-conscious programs interacting with namespaces may wish
              to  use this operation rather than open(2) with the pathname re-
              turned by ptsname(3), and similar library  functions  that  have
              insecure  APIs.  (For example, confusion can occur in some cases
              using ptsname(3) with a pathname where a devpts  filesystem  has
              been mounted in a different mount namespace.)

       The BSD ioctls TIOCSTOP, TIOCSTART, TIOCUCNTL, TIOCREMOTE have not been
       implemented under Linux.

   Modem control
       TIOCMGET  int *argp
              Get the status of modem bits.

       TIOCMSET  const int *argp
              Set the status of modem bits.

       TIOCMBIC  const int *argp
              Clear the indicated modem bits.

       TIOCMBIS  const int *argp
              Set the indicated modem bits.

       The following bits are used by the above ioctls:

       TIOCM_LE        DSR (data set ready/line enable)
       TIOCM_DTR       DTR (data terminal ready)
       TIOCM_RTS       RTS (request to send)
       TIOCM_ST        Secondary TXD (transmit)
       TIOCM_SR        Secondary RXD (receive)
       TIOCM_CTS       CTS (clear to send)
       TIOCM_CAR       DCD (data carrier detect)
       TIOCM_CD         see TIOCM_CAR
       TIOCM_RNG       RNG (ring)
       TIOCM_RI         see TIOCM_RNG
       TIOCM_DSR       DSR (data set ready)

       TIOCMIWAIT     int arg
              Wait for any of the 4 modem bits (DCD, RI, DSR, CTS) to  change.
              The  bits of interest are specified as a bit mask in arg, by OR-
              ing together any of the bit values,  TIOCM_RNG,  TIOCM_DSR,  TI-
              OCM_CD, and TIOCM_CTS.  The caller should use TIOCGICOUNT to see
              which bit has changed.

       TIOCGICOUNT    struct serial_icounter_struct *argp
              Get counts of input serial line interrupts (DCD, RI, DSR,  CTS).
              The  counts  are written to the serial_icounter_struct structure
              pointed to by argp.

              Note: both 1->0 and 0->1 transitions are counted, except for RI,
              where only 0->1 transitions are counted.

   Marking a line as local
       TIOCGSOFTCAR   int *argp
              ("Get  software carrier flag") Get the status of the CLOCAL flag
              in the c_cflag field of the termios structure.

       TIOCSSOFTCAR   const int *argp
              ("Set software carrier flag") Set the CLOCAL flag in the termios
              structure when *argp is nonzero, and clear it otherwise.

       If the CLOCAL flag for a line is off, the hardware carrier detect (DCD)
       signal is significant, and an open(2)  of  the  corresponding  terminal
       will  block until DCD is asserted, unless the O_NONBLOCK flag is given.
       If CLOCAL is set, the line behaves as if DCD is always  asserted.   The
       software  carrier  flag  is usually turned on for local devices, and is
       off for lines with modems.

   Linux-specific
       For the TIOCLINUX ioctl, see ioctl_console(2).

   Kernel debugging
       #include <linux/tty.h>

       TIOCTTYGSTRUCT struct tty_struct *argp
              Get the tty_struct corresponding to fd.  This  command  was  re-
              moved in Linux 2.5.67.

RETURN VALUE
       The ioctl(2) system call returns 0 on success.  On error, it returns -1
       and sets errno appropriately.

ERRORS
       EINVAL Invalid command parameter.

       ENOIOCTLCMD
              Unknown command.

       ENOTTY Inappropriate fd.

       EPERM  Insufficient permission.

EXAMPLES
       Check the condition of DTR on the serial port.

       #include <termios.h>
       #include <fcntl.h>
       #include <sys/ioctl.h>

       int
       main(void)
       {
           int fd, serial;

           fd = open("/dev/ttyS0", O_RDONLY);
           ioctl(fd, TIOCMGET, &serial);
           if (serial & TIOCM_DTR)
               puts("TIOCM_DTR is set");
           else
               puts("TIOCM_DTR is not set");
           close(fd);
       }

SEE ALSO
       ldattach(1), ioctl(2), ioctl_console(2), termios(3), pty(7)

COLOPHON
       This page is part of release 5.07 of the Linux  man-pages  project.   A
       description  of  the project, information about reporting bugs, and the
       latest    version    of    this    page,    can     be     found     at
       https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.

Linux                             2020-06-09                      IOCTL_TTY(2)

Man(1) output converted with man2html
list of all man pages