IRP_MJ_DEVICE_CONTROL (FS and filter drivers)
When Sent
The I/O Manager, other operating system components, and other kernel-mode drivers send IRP_MJ_DEVICE_CONTROL requests. Normally this IRP is sent on behalf of a user-mode application that has called the Win32 DeviceIoControl function or on behalf of a kernel-mode component that has called ZwDeviceIoControlFile.
Operation: File System Drivers
The file system driver should extract and decode the file object to determine whether the request has been issued on a handle that is a volume open. If so, the file system driver should pass the IRP to the device driver for the storage device on which the volume is mounted. If not, the driver should fail the IRP.
Operation: Legacy File System Filter Drivers
The filter driver should perform any needed processing and, depending on the nature of the filter, either complete the IRP or pass it down to the next-lower driver on the stack.
Parameters
A file system or filter driver calls IoGetCurrentIrpStackLocation for the given IRP to get a pointer to its own stack location in the IRP. In the following parameters, Irp points to the IRP and IrpSp points to the IO_STACK_LOCATION. The driver can use the information that is set in the following members of the IRP and the IRP stack location to process a device control request.
DeviceObject is a pointer to the target device object.
Irp->AssociatedIrp.SystemBuffer points to a system-supplied input buffer to be passed to the device driver for the target device. Used for METHOD_BUFFERED or METHOD_DIRECT I/O. Whether this parameter is required depends on the specific I/O control code.
Irp->IoStatus points to an IO_STATUS_BLOCK structure that receives the final completion status and information about the requested operation. For more information, see the description of the IoStatusBlock parameter to ZwDeviceIoControlFile.
Irp->MdlAddress is the address of a memory descriptor list (MDL) describing an output buffer to be passed to the device driver for the target device. Used for METHOD_DIRECT I/O. Whether this parameter is required depends on the specific I/O control code.
Irp->RequestorMode indicates the execution mode of the process that requested the operation, either KernelMode or UserMode.
Irp->UserBuffer points to a caller-supplied output buffer to be passed to the device driver for the target device. Used for METHOD_BUFFERED or METHOD_NEITHER I/O. Whether this parameter is optional or required depends on the specific I/O control code.
IrpSp->FileObject points to the file object that is associated with DeviceObject.
The IrpSp->FileObject parameter contains a pointer to the RelatedFileObject field, which is also a FILE_OBJECT structure. The RelatedFileObject field of the FILE_OBJECT structure isn't valid during the processing of IRP_MJ_DEVICE_CONTROL and shouldn't be used.
IrpSp->MajorFunction is set to IRP_MJ_DEVICE_CONTROL.
IrpSp->Parameters.DeviceIoControl.InputBufferLength is the size in bytes of the buffer pointed to by Irp->AssociatedIrp.SystemBuffer.
IrpSp->Parameters.DeviceIoControl.IoControlCode is the IOCTL function code to be passed to the device driver for the target device.
For detailed information about IOCTL requests, see Using I/O Control Codes and "Device Input and Output Control Codes" in the Windows SDK documentation.
IrpSp->Parameters.DeviceIoControl.OutputBufferLength is the size in bytes of the buffer pointed to by Irp->UserBuffer.
IrpSp->Parameters.DeviceIoControl.Type3InputBuffer is the input buffer for kernel-mode requests that use METHOD_NEITHER.
See also
Feedback
Coming soon: Throughout 2024 we will be phasing out GitHub Issues as the feedback mechanism for content and replacing it with a new feedback system. For more information see: https://aka.ms/ContentUserFeedback.
Submit and view feedback for