PROLOG

       This  manual  page  is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual.  The Linux implementation of this interface
       may differ (consult the corresponding Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior), or the  interface
       may not be implemented on Linux.

NAME

       tcgetattr — get the parameters associated with the terminal

SYNOPSIS

       #include <termios.h>

       int tcgetattr(int fildes, struct termios *termios_p);

DESCRIPTION

       The  tcgetattr() function shall get the parameters associated with the terminal referred to by fildes and
       store them in the termios structure referenced by  termios_p.   The  fildes  argument  is  an  open  file
       descriptor associated with a terminal.

       The termios_p argument is a pointer to a termios structure.

       The tcgetattr() operation is allowed from any process.

       If  the  terminal  device  supports  different  input and output baud rates, the baud rates stored in the
       termios structure returned by tcgetattr() shall reflect the actual baud rates, even if they are equal. If
       differing  baud  rates  are  not supported, the rate returned as the output baud rate shall be the actual
       baud rate. If the terminal device does not support split baud rates, the input baud rate  stored  in  the
       termios structure shall be the output rate (as one of the symbolic values).

RETURN VALUE

       Upon  successful  completion,  0  shall  be  returned.  Otherwise,  −1 shall be returned and errno set to
       indicate the error.

ERRORS

       The tcgetattr() function shall fail if:

       EBADF  The fildes argument is not a valid file descriptor.

       ENOTTY The file associated with fildes is not a terminal.

       The following sections are informative.

EXAMPLES

       None.

APPLICATION USAGE

       None.

RATIONALE

       Care must be taken when changing the terminal attributes. Applications should always  do  a  tcgetattr(),
       save  the  termios  structure  values  returned,  and  then do a tcsetattr(), changing only the necessary
       fields. The application should use the values saved from the tcgetattr()  to  reset  the  terminal  state
       whenever  it  is  done  with  the  terminal.   This is necessary because terminal attributes apply to the
       underlying port and not to each individual open instance; that is,  all  processes  that  have  used  the
       terminal see the latest attribute changes.

       A  program  that  uses  these functions should be written to catch all signals and take other appropriate
       actions to ensure that when the program terminates, whether planned or not, the terminal  device's  state
       is restored to its original state.

       Existing practice dealing with error returns when only part of a request can be honored is based on calls
       to the ioctl() function. In historical BSD  and  System  V  implementations,  the  corresponding  ioctl()
       returns  zero  if  the requested actions were semantically correct, even if some of the requested changes
       could not be made. Many existing applications assume this behavior and would no longer work correctly  if
       the return value were changed from zero to −1 in this case.

       Note that either specification has a problem. When zero is returned, it implies everything succeeded even
       if some of the changes were not made. When −1 is returned, it implies everything failed even though  some
       of the changes were made.

       Applications  that need all of the requested changes made to work properly should follow tcsetattr() with
       a call to tcgetattr() and compare the appropriate field values.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS

       None.

SEE ALSO

       tcsetattr()

       The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2008, Chapter 11, General Terminal Interface, <termios.h>

COPYRIGHT

       Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2013 Edition,
       Standard  for  Information Technology -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
       Specifications Issue 7, Copyright (C) 2013 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers,  Inc
       and  The  Open Group.  (This is POSIX.1-2008 with the 2013 Technical Corrigendum 1 applied.) In the event
       of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard,  the  original
       IEEE and The Open Group Standard is the referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online at
       http://www.unix.org/online.html .

       Any typographical or formatting errors that appear in this page are most likely to have  been  introduced
       during   the   conversion  of  the  source  files  to  man  page  format.  To  report  such  errors,  see
       https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .