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NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | RETURN VALUE | ERRORS | EXAMPLE | SEE ALSO | COLOPHONThe Linux Programming Interface

TTY_IOCTL(4)              Linux Programmer's Manual             TTY_IOCTL(4)

NAME         top

       tty_ioctl - ioctls for terminals and serial lines

SYNOPSIS         top

       #include <termios.h>

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

DESCRIPTION         top

       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,
       TCSETSF, 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
              terminal.

       TIOCSLCKTRMIOS const struct termios *argp
              Sets the locking status of the termios structure of the
              terminal.  Only root (more precisely: 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 window 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
       foreground 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 root (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.  If this terminal
              is already the controlling terminal of a different session
              group then the ioctl fails with EPERM, unless the caller is
              root (more precisely: 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
              calling process, give up this controlling terminal.  If the
              process was session leader, then send SIGHUP and SIGCONT to
              the foreground 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 will fail with
              ENOTTY in case 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)
              operations on the terminal are permitted.  (They will fail
              with EBUSY, except for root, that is, a process with the
              CAP_SYS_ADMIN capability.)

       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
              nonzero control byte, or has a single byte containing zero
              (' ') followed by data written on the slave side of the
              pseudoterminal.  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
              information to be read from the master side may be detected by
              a select(2) for exceptional conditions.

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

              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.

       Bits used by these four 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)

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 console_ioctl(4).

Kernel debugging

       #include <linux/tty.h>

       TIOCTTYGSTRUCT struct tty_struct *argp
              Get the tty_struct corresponding to fd.

RETURN VALUE         top

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

ERRORS         top

       EINVAL Invalid command parameter.

       ENOIOCTLCMD
              Unknown command.

       ENOTTY Inappropriate fd.

       EPERM  Insufficient permission.

EXAMPLE         top

       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 not set");
           else
               puts("TIOCM_DTR is set");
           close(fd);
       }

SEE ALSO         top

       ioctl(2), termios(3), console_ioctl(4), pty(7)

COLOPHON         top

       This page is part of release 3.51 of the Linux man-pages project.  A
       description of the project, and information about reporting bugs, can
       be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.

Linux                            2008-10-29                     TTY_IOCTL(4)

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