GPIO edge detection

Hi,

I'd like to detect a button press on an (old) Soekris net5501 (running
i386 6.1) where the button (push switch) is physically connected to a
GPIO pin.

Is there a proper way for edge detection, i.e., finding out when the
button is pressed without extensive polling via gpioctl in a loop?
E.g. a wait_for_edge() function?

All ideas or experience reports are welcome. Thanks!

Best regards,
Ingo