ioctl_tty - ioctls for terminals and serial lines

#include <sys/ioctl.h>
#include <asm/termbits.h> /* Definition of struct termios,
 struct termios2, and
 Bnnn, BOTHER, CBAUD, CLOCAL,
 TC*{FLUSH,ON,OFF} and other constants */
int ioctl(int fd, int op, ...);

The ioctl(2) call for terminals and serial ports accepts many possible operation 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.

Please note that struct termios from <asm/termbits.h> is different and incompatible with struct termios from <termios.h>. These ioctl calls require struct termios from <asm/termbits.h>.

Get and set terminal attributes

TCGETS

Argument: struct termios *argp

Equivalent to tcgetattr(fd, argp).

Get the current serial port settings.

TCSETS

Argument: const struct termios *argp

Equivalent to tcsetattr(fd, TCSANOW, argp).

Set the current serial port settings.

TCSETSW

Argument: const struct termios *argp

Equivalent to tcsetattr(fd, TCSADRAIN, argp).

Allow the output buffer to drain, and set the current serial port settings.

TCSETSF

Argument: 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, added in Linux 2.6.20, are just like TCGETS, TCSETS, TCSETSW, TCSETSF, except that they take a struct termios2 * instead of a struct termios *. If the structure member c_cflag contains the flag BOTHER, then the baud rate is stored in the structure members c_ispeed and c_ospeed as integer values. These ioctls are not supported on all architectures.

TCGETS2	struct termios2 *argp
TCSETS2	const struct termios2 *argp
TCSETSW2	const struct termios2 *argp
TCSETSF2	const struct termios2 *argp

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

Argument: struct termios *argp

Gets the locking status of the termios structure of the terminal.

TIOCSLCKTRMIOS

Argument: const struct termios *argp

Sets the locking status of the termios structure of the terminal. 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 window size when the size of the virtual console changes, for example, by loading a new font).

TIOCGWINSZ

Argument: struct winsize *argp

Get window size.

TIOCSWINSZ

Argument: 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

Argument: 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, and 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

Argument: int arg

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

TIOCSBRK

Argument: void

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

TIOCCBRK

Argument: void

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

Software flow control

TCXONC

Argument: int arg

Equivalent to tcflow(fd, arg).

See tcflow(3) for the argument values TCOOFF, TCOON, TCIOFF, TCION.

Buffer count and flushing

FIONREAD

Argument: int *argp

Get the number of bytes in the input buffer.

TIOCINQ

Argument: int *argp

Same as FIONREAD.

TIOCOUTQ

Argument: int *argp

Get the number of bytes in the output buffer.

TCFLSH

Argument: int arg

Equivalent to tcflush(fd, arg).

See tcflush(3) for the argument values TCIFLUSH, TCOFLUSH, TCIOFLUSH.

TIOCSERGETLSR

Argument: int *argp

Get line status register. Status register has TIOCSER_TEMT bit set when output buffer is empty and also hardware transmitter is physically empty.

Does not have to be supported by all serial tty drivers.

tcdrain(3) does not wait and returns immediately when TIOCSER_TEMT bit is set.

Faking input

TIOCSTI

Argument: const char *argp

Insert the given byte in the input queue.

Since Linux 6.2, this operation may require the CAP_SYS_ADMIN capability (if the dev.tty.legacy_tiocsti sysctl variable is set to false).

Redirecting console output

TIOCCONS

Argument: 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. Before Linux 2.6.10, anybody can do this as long as the output was not redirected yet; since Linux 2.6.10, only a process with the CAP_SYS_ADMIN capability may do this. If output was redirected already, then EBUSY is returned, but redirection can be stopped by using this ioctl with fd pointing at /dev/console or /dev/tty0.

Controlling terminal

TIOCSCTTY

Argument: 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 different 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

Argument: 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

Argument: pid_t *argp

When successful, equivalent to *argp = tcgetpgrp(fd).

Get the process group ID of the foreground process group on this terminal.

TIOCSPGRP

Argument: const pid_t *argp

Equivalent to tcsetpgrp(fd, *argp).

Set the foreground process group ID of this terminal.

TIOCGSID

Argument: pid_t *argp

When successful, equivalent to *argp = tcgetsid(fd).

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

Argument: void

Put the terminal into exclusive mode. No further open(2) operations on the terminal are permitted. (They fail with EBUSY, except for a process with the CAP_SYS_ADMIN capability.)

TIOCGEXCL

Argument: 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

Argument: void

Disable exclusive mode.

Line discipline

TIOCGETD

Argument: int *argp

Get the line discipline of the terminal.

TIOCSETD

Argument: const int *argp

Set the line discipline of the terminal.

Pseudoterminal ioctls

TIOCPKT

Argument: 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 ('\0') 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 packet 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 or a poll(2) for the POLLPRI event.

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

TIOCGPKT

Argument: const int *argp

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

TIOCSPTLCK

Argument: int *argp

Set (if *argp is nonzero) or remove (if *argp is zero) the lock on the pseudoterminal slave device. (See also unlockpt(3).)

TIOCGPTLCK

Argument: int *argp

(since Linux 3.8) Place the current lock state of the pseudoterminal slave device in the location pointed to by argp.

TIOCGPTPEER

Argument: 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 accessible 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 returned 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, and TIOCREMOTE have not been implemented under Linux.

Modem control

TIOCMGET

Argument: int *argp

Get the status of modem bits.

TIOCMSET

Argument: const int *argp

Set the status of modem bits.

TIOCMBIC

Argument: const int *argp

Clear the indicated modem bits.

TIOCMBIS

Argument: 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

Argument: 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 ORing together any of the bit values, TIOCM_RNG, TIOCM_DSR, TIOCM_CD, and TIOCM_CTS. The caller should use TIOCGICOUNT to see which bit has changed.

TIOCGICOUNT

Argument: 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

Argument: int *argp

("Get software carrier flag") Get the status of the CLOCAL flag in the c_cflag field of the termios structure.

TIOCSSOFTCAR

Argument: 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

Argument: struct tty_struct *argp

Get the tty_struct corresponding to fd. This operation was removed in Linux 2.5.67.

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

Check the condition of DTR on the serial port.

#include <fcntl.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <sys/ioctl.h>
#include <unistd.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);
}

Get or set arbitrary baudrate on the serial port.

/* SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0-or-later */
#include <asm/termbits.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <sys/ioctl.h>
#include <unistd.h>
int
main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
#if !defined BOTHER
    fprintf(stderr, "BOTHER is unsupported\n");
    /* Program may fallback to TCGETS/TCSETS with Bnnn constants */
    exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
#else
    /* Declare tio structure, its type depends on supported ioctl */
# if defined TCGETS2
    struct termios2 tio;
# else
    struct termios tio;
# endif
    int fd, rc;
    if (argc != 2 && argc != 3 && argc != 4) {
        fprintf(stderr, "Usage: %s device [output [input] ]\n", argv[0]);
        exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
    }
    fd = open(argv[1], O_RDWR | O_NONBLOCK | O_NOCTTY);
    if (fd < 0) {
        perror("open");
        exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
    }
    /* Get the current serial port settings via supported ioctl */
# if defined TCGETS2
    rc = ioctl(fd, TCGETS2, &tio);
# else
    rc = ioctl(fd, TCGETS, &tio);
# endif
    if (rc) {
        perror("TCGETS");
        close(fd);
        exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
    }
    /* Change baud rate when more arguments were provided */
    if (argc == 3 || argc == 4) {
        /* Clear the current output baud rate and fill a new value */
        tio.c_cflag &= ~CBAUD;
        tio.c_cflag |= BOTHER;
        tio.c_ospeed = atoi(argv[2]);
        /* Clear the current input baud rate and fill a new value */
        tio.c_cflag &= ~(CBAUD << IBSHIFT);
        tio.c_cflag |= BOTHER << IBSHIFT;
        /* When 4th argument is not provided reuse output baud rate */
        tio.c_ispeed = (argc == 4) ? atoi(argv[3]) : atoi(argv[2]);
        /* Set new serial port settings via supported ioctl */
# if defined TCSETS2
        rc = ioctl(fd, TCSETS2, &tio);
# else
        rc = ioctl(fd, TCSETS, &tio);
# endif
        if (rc) {
            perror("TCSETS");
            close(fd);
            exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
        }
        /* And get new values which were really configured */
# if defined TCGETS2
        rc = ioctl(fd, TCGETS2, &tio);
# else
        rc = ioctl(fd, TCGETS, &tio);
# endif
        if (rc) {
            perror("TCGETS");
            close(fd);
            exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
        }
    }
    close(fd);
    printf("output baud rate: %u\n", tio.c_ospeed);
    printf("input baud rate: %u\n", tio.c_ispeed);
    exit(EXIT_SUCCESS);
#endif
}

ldattach(8), ioctl(2), ioctl_console(2), termios(3), pty(7)