linux_dsm_epyc7002/Documentation/userspace-api/ioctl/ioctl-decoding.rst
Jonathan Corbet 049500715e docs: Move the user-space ioctl() docs to userspace-api
This is strictly user-space material at this point, so put it with the
other user-space API documentation.

Signed-off-by: Jonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>
2019-10-10 11:21:54 -06:00

32 lines
830 B
ReStructuredText

==============================
Decoding an IOCTL Magic Number
==============================
To decode a hex IOCTL code:
Most architectures use this generic format, but check
include/ARCH/ioctl.h for specifics, e.g. powerpc
uses 3 bits to encode read/write and 13 bits for size.
====== ==================================
bits meaning
====== ==================================
31-30 00 - no parameters: uses _IO macro
10 - read: _IOR
01 - write: _IOW
11 - read/write: _IOWR
29-16 size of arguments
15-8 ascii character supposedly
unique to each driver
7-0 function #
====== ==================================
So for example 0x82187201 is a read with arg length of 0x218,
character 'r' function 1. Grepping the source reveals this is::
#define VFAT_IOCTL_READDIR_BOTH _IOR('r', 1, struct dirent [2])