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[PATCH] Document how to decode an IOCTL number
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Document how to decode a binary IOCTL number.

Signed-off-by: Chuck Ebbert <76306.1226@compuserve.com>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
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Chuck Ebbert authored and Linus Torvalds committed Dec 10, 2006
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24 changes: 24 additions & 0 deletions Documentation/ioctl/ioctl-decoding.txt
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To decode a hex IOCTL code:

Most architecures 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])

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