haiku/docs/user/posix/unistd.dox
PulkoMandy 344ded80d4 ioctl: Document in Haiku book and in comments
- Convert libroot from a page to a group, so that it can list the
  included file and functions in the generated book (like the kits)
- Add unistd.dox and move the relevant part of ioctl details there
- Make sure to use C89-compatible comments only in POSIX headers

Change-Id: I8f0412e4c75de6f48018a0436909f8b0076342a4
Reviewed-on: https://review.haiku-os.org/c/haiku/+/6369
Reviewed-by: Adrien Destugues <pulkomandy@pulkomandy.tk>
Haiku-Format: Haiku-format Bot <no-reply+haikuformatbot@haiku-os.org>
2024-11-18 17:12:04 +00:00

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/*
* Copyright 2023 Haiku, Inc. All rights reserved.
* Distributed under the terms of the MIT License.
*
* Authors:
* Adrien Destugues, pulkomandy@pulkomandy.tk
*
* Corresponds to:
* headers/posix/unistd.h hrev56953
*/
/*!
\file unistd.h
\ingroup libroot
\brief Standard symbolic constants and types
*/
/*!
\fn int ioctl(int fd, unsigned long op, void* argument, size_t size)
\brief Send a control command to a device through a file descriptor
ioctls are usually sent to file descriptors corresponding to files in the devfs filesystem
(mounted in /dev). It allows sending commands to devices that wouldn't fit the usual flow of
the read and write operations.
The action to perform is identified by the "op" parameter. Each driver can implement its own
custom operations as needed, depending on the device being controlled. There are also a few
standard ones implemented by most drivers.
In the standard UNIX version of this function, there is support for only one extra argument,
which can be either an integer, or a pointer, either pointing to some data to send to the
driver, or some buffer to receive a response. In most UNIX systems, further details about the
operation are encoded in the "op" parameter, with bits indicating the direction and size of
the buffer.
In BeOS and Haiku, the allocation of "op" values is done freely in each driver, and no bits are
reserved for such use. Instead, a 4th argument is allowed, and can be used to indicate the
buffer size. There is no need to encode the transfer direction, as this can be agreed between
the calling application and the driver.
Both the 3rd and 4th parameters are optional. In C++, this is done using C++ function default
arguments and causes no problems. However, the C language has no such feature. Therefore, the
C implementation is a macro implementing a similar behavior.
To avoid these divergences between implementations of ioctl, portable applications should
consider using the newly standardized posix_devctl function from POSIX 1.2024, which is
equivalent to the BeOS/Haiku implementation of ioctl and also has an explicit size parameter.
*/