\author {Sven Goldt}
\title {The Linux Programmer's Guide}

\section {The "swiss army knife" ioctl}

ioctl stands for input/output control and is used to manipulate a
character device via a filedescriptor. The format of ioctl is\\
{\it ioctl(unsigned int fd, unsigned int request, unsigned long argument)}.\\
The return value is -1 if an error occured and a value greater or
equal than 0 if the request succeeded just like other system calls.
The kernel distinguishes special and regular files.
Special files are...

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