Show HN: I've updated my Linux System Call website and API

1 comments

• ReDress 31 minutes ago
  If syscalls are so similar, for instance, like 'read' and 'readv' or 'pread', 'sendmsg' and 'sendmsgv' or 'fork' and 'vfork'.

  Does it still make sense to term or classify them as two distinct syscalls?

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  • PhilipRoman 18 minutes ago
    I wouldn't call any of them similar, except for 'pread' maybe. Each one has a lot of subtle semantics. Either way, it's syscall.tbl that determines whether they are distinct syscalls, not the author's page
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    • ReDress 14 minutes ago
      I'm just noting this because it makes the number of Linux syscalls seem very exaggerated at a whole around 400 syscalls.

      But, anyways, not like it matters that much but still.

      400 distinct syscalls is a very large number of syscalls if you generally presume they're entirely distinct.
  • rustyhancock 23 minutes ago
    It definitely makes sense to have a section "similar syscalls on this architecture" on the details page.
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    • guitmz 18 minutes ago
      There's a "Same syscall on other architectures" section already, maybe I could add the Similar section next to it. Edit: but this means it needs a way to actually know they are similar apart from only their names
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      • rustyhancock 2 minutes ago
        This maybe unpopular idea if you've avoided AI thus far, but it does seem like an LLM would make short work of that task.