syscall(2) function (really: syscall(3))

[Larry McVoy]

In article <1449 at ubu.warwick.UUCP> mirk at uk.ac.warwick.cs (Mike Taylor) writes:
>It's kinda sad to see how the minimal set of low-level routines in
>primitive UNICES has mushroomed to the incredible 178 distinct system
>calls that our current UNIX (SunOS 4.3, in fact) seems to find
>necessary.

Umm, this is a bit naive.  Granted, I'm working at Sun at the moment, but 
those of you who remember my screaming and yelling about the size of the
SunOS kernel will realize that I tend to speak my mind without letting
any corporation's feelings get in the way.  Anyway, counting system calls
is bogus, completely bogus.  You need to count syscalls & ioctls.  ioctls()
bop right down into the kernel too, you know.  AT&T adds ioctls like 
there is no tomorrow.

I'm not saying that the kernel isn't too big, in fact I agree completely 
if that is the poster's point.  I am saying that it is naive to simply 
count system calls.  It's a lot more than 178; Unix is corporate software.

Larry McVoy, Lachman Associates.			...!sun!lm or lm at sun.com