NAME

syscall — indirect system call

SYNOPSIS

#include <sys/syscall.h>
#include <unistd.h>

int
syscall(int number, ...);

DESCRIPTION

Syscall() performs the system call whose assembly language interface has the specified number with the specified arguments. Symbolic constants for system calls can be found in the header file ⟨sys/syscall.h⟩.

RETURN VALUES

The return value is defined by the system call being invoked. In general, a 0 return value indicates success. A -1 return value indicates an error, and an error code is stored in errno.

BUGS

There is no way to simulate system calls that have multiple return values such as pipe(2).

HISTORY

The syscall() function call appeared in 4.0BSD.