iio_writedev(1)

💖 iio_writedev — from the LibIIO Utilities girlies 💖

okay so bestie, welcome to iio_writedev(1), one of the LibIIO Utilities. if you're here it's because you wanna write buffers onto an IIO device, and I am so proud of you for reading the manual first. main character behavior fr fr. 🫶

---

✨ NAME ✨

iio_writedev — write buffers on an IIO device

---

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

iio_writedev [ options ] [-t <trigger>] [-T <timeout-ms>] [-b <buffer-
size>] [-s <samples>] <iio_device> [<channel> ...]

---

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

iio_reg is a utility for writing buffers from connected IIO devices.

not me clocking that the description literally says iio_reg and not iio_writedev 💀 I am NOT editing the sacred text, I just report what the page says. copy it, don't @ me.

---

💅 OPTIONS 💅

• -h, --help — tells iio_writedev to show you some help, and then dip. so valid of it.
• -V, --version — prints the version info for this exact copy of iio_writedev and the version of the libiio library it's using. lowkey iconic for checking whether your library and your iio_writedev are both up to date, and highkey essential when you're filing a bug report. 👑
• -S, --scan — scan for available IIO contexts. takes an optional arg for specific backend(s): 'ip', 'usb' or 'ip:usb'. specific options for USB include Vendor ID, Product ID to limit scanning to specific devices: 'usb=0456,b673'. vid,pid are hexadecimal numbers (no prefix needed), and "*" (match any for pid only). if no argument is given, it checks all that are available. ✨
• -t, --trigger — use the specified trigger, if needed on the specified channel
• -b, --buffer-size — size of the capture buffer. default is 256.
• -s, --samples — number of samples (not bytes, bestie, samples) to capture, 0 = infinite. default is 0.
• -T, --timeout — buffer timeout in milliseconds. 0 = no timeout. default is 0.
• -c, --cyclic — use cyclic buffer mode. 🔁
• -u, --uri — the Uniform Resource Identifier (uri) for connecting to devices, can be one of:
  • ip:[address] — network address, either numeric (192.168.0.1) or network hostname
  • ip: — blank. if compiled with zeroconf support, will find an IIO device on network
  • usb:[device:port:instance] — normally returned from iio_writedev -S
  • serial:[port],[baud],[settings] — which are controlled, and need to match the iiod (or tinyiiod) on the other end of the serial port.
    • [port] is something like '/dev/ttyUSB0' on Linux, and 'COM4' on Windows.
    • [baud] is is normally one of 110, 300, 600, 1200, 2400, 4800, 9600, 14400, 19200, 38400, 57600, 115200 [default], 128000 or 256000, but can vary system to system.
    • [settings] would normally be configured as '8n1' — this is controlled by:
      • data_bits: (5, 6, 7, 8 [default], or 9)
      • parity_bits: ('n' none [default], 'o' odd, 'e' even, 'm' mark, or 's' space)
      • stop_bits: (1 [default, or 2)
      • flow_control: ('0' none [default], 'x' Xon Xoff, 'r' RTSCTS, or 'd' DTRDSR)
  • local: — with no address part. 🏠

---

🔥 RETURN VALUE 🔥

if the specified device is not found, a non-zero exit code is returned. simple as that, no cap.

---

🎀 USAGE 🎀

you use iio_writedev in the same way you use many of the other libiio utilities. you should specify a IIO device, and the specific channel to write. since this is a write, channels must be output — that part matters bestie, don't fight it. if no channel is provided, iio_writedev will write to all output channels. and if no device is provided, iio_writedev will print a few examples:

iio_writedev -a
Using auto-detected IIO context at URI "usb:3.10.5"
Example : iio_writedev -u usb:3.10.5 -b 256 -s 1024 cf-ad9361-dds-core-lpc voltage0
Example : iio_writedev -u usb:3.10.5 -b 256 -s 1024 cf-ad9361-dds-core-lpc voltage1
Example : iio_writedev -u usb:3.10.5 -b 256 -s 1024 cf-ad9361-dds-core-lpc voltage2
Example : iio_writedev -u usb:3.10.5 -b 256 -s 1024 cf-ad9361-dds-core-lpc voltage3
Example : iio_writedev -u usb:3.10.5 -b 256 -s 1024 cf-ad9361-dds-core-lpc

this sends 1024 samples of I and Q data to the USB attached AD9361. data is taking from standard in, in a binary format.

iio_writedev -a -s 1024 cf-ad9361-dds-core-lpc voltage0 voltage1 < ./samples.dat

and yes, piping your little binary blob straight into stdin like that is chef's kiss. 🌈

---

⭐ SEE ALSO ⭐

• iio_attr(1)
• iio_info(1)
• iio_readdev(1)
• iio_reg(1)
• iio_writedev(1)
• libiio(3)

libiio home page: https://wiki.analog.com/resources/tools-software/linux-software/libiio

libiio code: https://github.com/analogdevicesinc/libiio

Doxygen for libiio: https://analogdevicesinc.github.io/libiio/

---

😭 BUGS 😭

all bugs are tracked at: https://github.com/analogdevicesinc/libiio/issues

---

if you made it to the end, you're literally the strongest soldier I know 💜 this was libiio-0.26, dated 06 February 2026, straight out of the LibIIO Utilities fam. go write some buffers, bestie. slay. ��🦋🎀