Documentation/driver-api/ioctl.rst - linux - Git at Google

 ======================
 ioctl based interfaces
 ======================

 ioctl() is the most common way for applications to interface
 with device drivers. It is flexible and easily extended by adding new
 commands and can be passed through character devices, block devices as
 well as sockets and other special file descriptors.

 However, it is also very easy to get ioctl command definitions wrong,
 and hard to fix them later without breaking existing applications,
 so this documentation tries to help developers get it right.

 Command number definitions
 ==========================

 The command number, or request number, is the second argument passed to
 the ioctl system call. While this can be any 32-bit number that uniquely
 identifies an action for a particular driver, there are a number of
 conventions around defining them.

 ``include/uapi/asm-generic/ioctl.h`` provides four macros for defining
 ioctl commands that follow modern conventions: ``_IO``, ``_IOR``,
 ``_IOW``, and ``_IOWR``. These should be used for all new commands,
 with the correct parameters:

 _IO/_IOR/_IOW/_IOWR
    The macro name specifies how the argument will be used.  It may be a
    pointer to data to be passed into the kernel (_IOW), out of the kernel
    (_IOR), or both (_IOWR).  _IO can indicate either commands with no
    argument or those passing an integer value instead of a pointer.
    It is recommended to only use _IO for commands without arguments,
    and use pointers for passing data.

 type
    An 8-bit number, often a character literal, specific to a subsystem
    or driver, and listed in Documentation/userspace-api/ioctl/ioctl-number.rst

 nr
   An 8-bit number identifying the specific command, unique for a give
   value of 'type'

 data_type
   The name of the data type pointed to by the argument, the command number
   encodes the ``sizeof(data_type)`` value in a 13-bit or 14-bit integer,
   leading to a limit of 8191 bytes for the maximum size of the argument.
   Note: do not pass sizeof(data_type) type into _IOR/_IOW/IOWR, as that
   will lead to encoding sizeof(sizeof(data_type)), i.e. sizeof(size_t).
   _IO does not have a data_type parameter.


 Interface versions
 ==================

 Some subsystems use version numbers in data structures to overload
 commands with different interpretations of the argument.

 This is generally a bad idea, since changes to existing commands tend
 to break existing applications.

 A better approach is to add a new ioctl command with a new number. The
 old command still needs to be implemented in the kernel for compatibility,
 but this can be a wrapper around the new implementation.

 Return code
 ===========

 ioctl commands can return negative error codes as documented in errno(3);
 these get turned into errno values in user space. On success, the return
 code should be zero. It is also possible but not recommended to return
 a positive 'long' value.

 When the ioctl callback is called with an unknown command number, the
 handler returns either -ENOTTY or -ENOIOCTLCMD, which also results in
 -ENOTTY being returned from the system call. Some subsystems return
 -ENOSYS or -EINVAL here for historic reasons, but this is wrong.

 Prior to Linux 5.5, compat_ioctl handlers were required to return
 -ENOIOCTLCMD in order to use the fallback conversion into native
 commands. As all subsystems are now responsible for handling compat
 mode themselves, this is no longer needed, but it may be important to
 consider when backporting bug fixes to older kernels.

 Timestamps
 ==========

 Traditionally, timestamps and timeout values are passed as ``struct
 timespec`` or ``struct timeval``, but these are problematic because of
 incompatible definitions of these structures in user space after the
 move to 64-bit time_t.

 The ``struct __kernel_timespec`` type can be used instead to be embedded
 in other data structures when separate second/nanosecond values are
 desired, or passed to user space directly. This is still not ideal though,
 as the structure matches neither the kernel's timespec64 nor the user
 space timespec exactly. The get_timespec64() and put_timespec64() helper
 functions can be used to ensure that the layout remains compatible with
 user space and the padding is treated correctly.

 As it is cheap to convert seconds to nanoseconds, but the opposite
 requires an expensive 64-bit division, a simple __u64 nanosecond value
 can be simpler and more efficient.

 Timeout values and timestamps should ideally use CLOCK_MONOTONIC time,
 as returned by ktime_get_ns() or ktime_get_ts64().  Unlike
 CLOCK_REALTIME, this makes the timestamps immune from jumping backwards
 or forwards due to leap second adjustments and clock_settime() calls.

 ktime_get_real_ns() can be used for CLOCK_REALTIME timestamps that
 need to be persistent across a reboot or between multiple machines.

 32-bit compat mode
 ==================

 In order to support 32-bit user space running on a 64-bit machine, each
 subsystem or driver that implements an ioctl callback handler must also
 implement the corresponding compat_ioctl handler.

 As long as all the rules for data structures are followed, this is as
 easy as setting the .compat_ioctl pointer to a helper function such as
 compat_ptr_ioctl() or blkdev_compat_ptr_ioctl().

 compat_ptr()
 ------------

 On the s390 architecture, 31-bit user space has ambiguous representations
 for data pointers, with the upper bit being ignored. When running such
 a process in compat mode, the compat_ptr() helper must be used to
 clear the upper bit of a compat_uptr_t and turn it into a valid 64-bit
 pointer.  On other architectures, this macro only performs a cast to a
 ``void __user *`` pointer.

 In an compat_ioctl() callback, the last argument is an unsigned long,
 which can be interpreted as either a pointer or a scalar depending on
 the command. If it is a scalar, then compat_ptr() must not be used, to
 ensure that the 64-bit kernel behaves the same way as a 32-bit kernel
 for arguments with the upper bit set.

 The compat_ptr_ioctl() helper can be used in place of a custom
 compat_ioctl file operation for drivers that only take arguments that
 are pointers to compatible data structures.

 Structure layout
 ----------------

 Compatible data structures have the same layout on all architectures,
 avoiding all problematic members:

 * ``long`` and ``unsigned long`` are the size of a register, so
   they can be either 32-bit or 64-bit wide and cannot be used in portable
   data structures. Fixed-length replacements are ``__s32``, ``__u32``,
   ``__s64`` and ``__u64``.

 * Pointers have the same problem, in addition to requiring the
   use of compat_ptr(). The best workaround is to use ``__u64``
   in place of pointers, which requires a cast to ``uintptr_t`` in user
   space, and the use of u64_to_user_ptr() in the kernel to convert
   it back into a user pointer.

 * On the x86-32 (i386) architecture, the alignment of 64-bit variables
   is only 32-bit, but they are naturally aligned on most other
   architectures including x86-64. This means a structure like::

     struct foo {
         __u32 a;
         __u64 b;
         __u32 c;
     };

   has four bytes of padding between a and b on x86-64, plus another four
   bytes of padding at the end, but no padding on i386, and it needs a
   compat_ioctl conversion handler to translate between the two formats.

   To avoid this problem, all structures should have their members
   naturally aligned, or explicit reserved fields added in place of the
   implicit padding. The ``pahole`` tool can be used for checking the
   alignment.

 * On ARM OABI user space, structures are padded to multiples of 32-bit,
   making some structs incompatible with modern EABI kernels if they
   do not end on a 32-bit boundary.

 * On the m68k architecture, struct members are not guaranteed to have an
   alignment greater than 16-bit, which is a problem when relying on
   implicit padding.

 * Bitfields and enums generally work as one would expect them to,
   but some properties of them are implementation-defined, so it is better
   to avoid them completely in ioctl interfaces.

 * ``char`` members can be either signed or unsigned, depending on
   the architecture, so the __u8 and __s8 types should be used for 8-bit
   integer values, though char arrays are clearer for fixed-length strings.

 Information leaks
 =================

 Uninitialized data must not be copied back to user space, as this can
 cause an information leak, which can be used to defeat kernel address
 space layout randomization (KASLR), helping in an attack.

 For this reason (and for compat support) it is best to avoid any
 implicit padding in data structures.  Where there is implicit padding
 in an existing structure, kernel drivers must be careful to fully
 initialize an instance of the structure before copying it to user
 space.  This is usually done by calling memset() before assigning to
 individual members.

 Subsystem abstractions
 ======================

 While some device drivers implement their own ioctl function, most
 subsystems implement the same command for multiple drivers.  Ideally the
 subsystem has an .ioctl() handler that copies the arguments from and
 to user space, passing them into subsystem specific callback functions
 through normal kernel pointers.

 This helps in various ways:

 * Applications written for one driver are more likely to work for
   another one in the same subsystem if there are no subtle differences
   in the user space ABI.

 * The complexity of user space access and data structure layout is done
   in one place, reducing the potential for implementation bugs.

 * It is more likely to be reviewed by experienced developers
   that can spot problems in the interface when the ioctl is shared
   between multiple drivers than when it is only used in a single driver.

 Alternatives to ioctl
 =====================

 There are many cases in which ioctl is not the best solution for a
 problem. Alternatives include:

 * System calls are a better choice for a system-wide feature that
   is not tied to a physical device or constrained by the file system
   permissions of a character device node

 * netlink is the preferred way of configuring any network related
   objects through sockets.

 * debugfs is used for ad-hoc interfaces for debugging functionality
   that does not need to be exposed as a stable interface to applications.

 * sysfs is a good way to expose the state of an in-kernel object
   that is not tied to a file descriptor.

 * configfs can be used for more complex configuration than sysfs

 * A custom file system can provide extra flexibility with a simple
   user interface but adds a lot of complexity to the implementation.
	======================
	ioctl based interfaces
	======================

	ioctl() is the most common way for applications to interface
	with device drivers. It is flexible and easily extended by adding new
	commands and can be passed through character devices, block devices as
	well as sockets and other special file descriptors.

	However, it is also very easy to get ioctl command definitions wrong,
	and hard to fix them later without breaking existing applications,
	so this documentation tries to help developers get it right.

	Command number definitions
	==========================

	The command number, or request number, is the second argument passed to
	the ioctl system call. While this can be any 32-bit number that uniquely
	identifies an action for a particular driver, there are a number of
	conventions around defining them.

	``include/uapi/asm-generic/ioctl.h`` provides four macros for defining
	ioctl commands that follow modern conventions: ``_IO``, ``_IOR``,
	``_IOW``, and ``_IOWR``. These should be used for all new commands,
	with the correct parameters:

	_IO/_IOR/_IOW/_IOWR
	The macro name specifies how the argument will be used. It may be a
	pointer to data to be passed into the kernel (_IOW), out of the kernel
	(_IOR), or both (_IOWR). _IO can indicate either commands with no
	argument or those passing an integer value instead of a pointer.
	It is recommended to only use _IO for commands without arguments,
	and use pointers for passing data.

	type
	An 8-bit number, often a character literal, specific to a subsystem
	or driver, and listed in Documentation/userspace-api/ioctl/ioctl-number.rst

	nr
	An 8-bit number identifying the specific command, unique for a give
	value of 'type'

	data_type
	The name of the data type pointed to by the argument, the command number
	encodes the ``sizeof(data_type)`` value in a 13-bit or 14-bit integer,
	leading to a limit of 8191 bytes for the maximum size of the argument.
	Note: do not pass sizeof(data_type) type into _IOR/_IOW/IOWR, as that
	will lead to encoding sizeof(sizeof(data_type)), i.e. sizeof(size_t).
	_IO does not have a data_type parameter.


	Interface versions
	==================

	Some subsystems use version numbers in data structures to overload
	commands with different interpretations of the argument.

	This is generally a bad idea, since changes to existing commands tend
	to break existing applications.

	A better approach is to add a new ioctl command with a new number. The
	old command still needs to be implemented in the kernel for compatibility,
	but this can be a wrapper around the new implementation.

	Return code
	===========

	ioctl commands can return negative error codes as documented in errno(3);
	these get turned into errno values in user space. On success, the return
	code should be zero. It is also possible but not recommended to return
	a positive 'long' value.

	When the ioctl callback is called with an unknown command number, the
	handler returns either -ENOTTY or -ENOIOCTLCMD, which also results in
	-ENOTTY being returned from the system call. Some subsystems return
	-ENOSYS or -EINVAL here for historic reasons, but this is wrong.

	Prior to Linux 5.5, compat_ioctl handlers were required to return
	-ENOIOCTLCMD in order to use the fallback conversion into native
	commands. As all subsystems are now responsible for handling compat
	mode themselves, this is no longer needed, but it may be important to
	consider when backporting bug fixes to older kernels.

	Timestamps
	==========

	Traditionally, timestamps and timeout values are passed as ``struct
	timespec`` or ``struct timeval``, but these are problematic because of
	incompatible definitions of these structures in user space after the
	move to 64-bit time_t.

	The ``struct __kernel_timespec`` type can be used instead to be embedded
	in other data structures when separate second/nanosecond values are
	desired, or passed to user space directly. This is still not ideal though,
	as the structure matches neither the kernel's timespec64 nor the user
	space timespec exactly. The get_timespec64() and put_timespec64() helper
	functions can be used to ensure that the layout remains compatible with
	user space and the padding is treated correctly.

	As it is cheap to convert seconds to nanoseconds, but the opposite
	requires an expensive 64-bit division, a simple __u64 nanosecond value
	can be simpler and more efficient.

	Timeout values and timestamps should ideally use CLOCK_MONOTONIC time,
	as returned by ktime_get_ns() or ktime_get_ts64(). Unlike
	CLOCK_REALTIME, this makes the timestamps immune from jumping backwards
	or forwards due to leap second adjustments and clock_settime() calls.

	ktime_get_real_ns() can be used for CLOCK_REALTIME timestamps that
	need to be persistent across a reboot or between multiple machines.

	32-bit compat mode
	==================

	In order to support 32-bit user space running on a 64-bit machine, each
	subsystem or driver that implements an ioctl callback handler must also
	implement the corresponding compat_ioctl handler.

	As long as all the rules for data structures are followed, this is as
	easy as setting the .compat_ioctl pointer to a helper function such as
	compat_ptr_ioctl() or blkdev_compat_ptr_ioctl().

	compat_ptr()
	------------

	On the s390 architecture, 31-bit user space has ambiguous representations
	for data pointers, with the upper bit being ignored. When running such
	a process in compat mode, the compat_ptr() helper must be used to
	clear the upper bit of a compat_uptr_t and turn it into a valid 64-bit
	pointer. On other architectures, this macro only performs a cast to a
	``void __user *`` pointer.

	In an compat_ioctl() callback, the last argument is an unsigned long,
	which can be interpreted as either a pointer or a scalar depending on
	the command. If it is a scalar, then compat_ptr() must not be used, to
	ensure that the 64-bit kernel behaves the same way as a 32-bit kernel
	for arguments with the upper bit set.

	The compat_ptr_ioctl() helper can be used in place of a custom
	compat_ioctl file operation for drivers that only take arguments that
	are pointers to compatible data structures.

	Structure layout
	----------------

	Compatible data structures have the same layout on all architectures,
	avoiding all problematic members:

	* ``long`` and ``unsigned long`` are the size of a register, so
	they can be either 32-bit or 64-bit wide and cannot be used in portable
	data structures. Fixed-length replacements are ``__s32``, ``__u32``,
	``__s64`` and ``__u64``.

	* Pointers have the same problem, in addition to requiring the
	use of compat_ptr(). The best workaround is to use ``__u64``
	in place of pointers, which requires a cast to ``uintptr_t`` in user
	space, and the use of u64_to_user_ptr() in the kernel to convert
	it back into a user pointer.

	* On the x86-32 (i386) architecture, the alignment of 64-bit variables
	is only 32-bit, but they are naturally aligned on most other
	architectures including x86-64. This means a structure like::

	struct foo {
	__u32 a;
	__u64 b;
	__u32 c;
	};

	has four bytes of padding between a and b on x86-64, plus another four
	bytes of padding at the end, but no padding on i386, and it needs a
	compat_ioctl conversion handler to translate between the two formats.

	To avoid this problem, all structures should have their members
	naturally aligned, or explicit reserved fields added in place of the
	implicit padding. The ``pahole`` tool can be used for checking the
	alignment.

	* On ARM OABI user space, structures are padded to multiples of 32-bit,
	making some structs incompatible with modern EABI kernels if they
	do not end on a 32-bit boundary.

	* On the m68k architecture, struct members are not guaranteed to have an
	alignment greater than 16-bit, which is a problem when relying on
	implicit padding.

	* Bitfields and enums generally work as one would expect them to,
	but some properties of them are implementation-defined, so it is better
	to avoid them completely in ioctl interfaces.

	* ``char`` members can be either signed or unsigned, depending on
	the architecture, so the __u8 and __s8 types should be used for 8-bit
	integer values, though char arrays are clearer for fixed-length strings.

	Information leaks
	=================

	Uninitialized data must not be copied back to user space, as this can
	cause an information leak, which can be used to defeat kernel address
	space layout randomization (KASLR), helping in an attack.

	For this reason (and for compat support) it is best to avoid any
	implicit padding in data structures. Where there is implicit padding
	in an existing structure, kernel drivers must be careful to fully
	initialize an instance of the structure before copying it to user
	space. This is usually done by calling memset() before assigning to
	individual members.

	Subsystem abstractions
	======================

	While some device drivers implement their own ioctl function, most
	subsystems implement the same command for multiple drivers. Ideally the
	subsystem has an .ioctl() handler that copies the arguments from and
	to user space, passing them into subsystem specific callback functions
	through normal kernel pointers.

	This helps in various ways:

	* Applications written for one driver are more likely to work for
	another one in the same subsystem if there are no subtle differences
	in the user space ABI.

	* The complexity of user space access and data structure layout is done
	in one place, reducing the potential for implementation bugs.

	* It is more likely to be reviewed by experienced developers
	that can spot problems in the interface when the ioctl is shared
	between multiple drivers than when it is only used in a single driver.

	Alternatives to ioctl
	=====================

	There are many cases in which ioctl is not the best solution for a
	problem. Alternatives include:

	* System calls are a better choice for a system-wide feature that
	is not tied to a physical device or constrained by the file system
	permissions of a character device node

	* netlink is the preferred way of configuring any network related
	objects through sockets.

	* debugfs is used for ad-hoc interfaces for debugging functionality
	that does not need to be exposed as a stable interface to applications.

	* sysfs is a good way to expose the state of an in-kernel object
	that is not tied to a file descriptor.

	* configfs can be used for more complex configuration than sysfs

	* A custom file system can provide extra flexibility with a simple
	user interface but adds a lot of complexity to the implementation.