ioctl was a mistake by people that didn't understand the "everything is a file principle" (a huge mistake I might add). The original Unix from Bell Labs had no

ioctl was a mistake by people that didn't understand the "everything is a file principle" (a huge mistake I might add). The original Unix from Bell Labs had no ioctl, Plan 9 has no ioctl, and the Linux people have been claiming to want to eventually get rid of all ioctls due to all the problems they cause, but the inertia and all the people that seem incapable of writing interfaces without ioctl means it will be ages before they get there.