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_syscall(2) [linux man page]

_SYSCALL(2)						     Linux Programmer's Manual						       _SYSCALL(2)

NAME
_syscall - invoking a system call without library support (OBSOLETE) SYNOPSIS
#include <linux/unistd.h> A _syscall macro desired system call DESCRIPTION
The important thing to know about a system call is its prototype. You need to know how many arguments, their types, and the function return type. There are seven macros that make the actual call into the system easier. They have the form: _syscallX(type,name,type1,arg1,type2,arg2,...) where X is 0-6, which are the number of arguments taken by the system call type is the return type of the system call name is the name of the system call typeN is the Nth argument's type argN is the name of the Nth argument These macros create a function called name with the arguments you specify. Once you include the _syscall() in your source file, you call the system call by name. FILES
/usr/include/linux/unistd.h CONFORMING TO
The use of these macros is Linux-specific, and deprecated. NOTES
Starting around kernel 2.6.18, the _syscall macros were removed from header files supplied to user space. Use syscall(2) instead. (Some architectures, notably ia64, never provided the _syscall macros; on those architectures, syscall(2) was always required.) The _syscall() macros do not produce a prototype. You may have to create one, especially for C++ users. System calls are not required to return only positive or negative error codes. You need to read the source to be sure how it will return errors. Usually, it is the negative of a standard error code, for example, -EPERM. The _syscall() macros will return the result r of the system call when r is nonnegative, but will return -1 and set the variable errno to -r when r is negative. For the error codes, see errno(3). When defining a system call, the argument types must be passed by-value or by-pointer (for aggregates like structs). EXAMPLE
#include <stdio.h> #include <stdlib.h> #include <errno.h> #include <linux/unistd.h> /* for _syscallX macros/related stuff */ #include <linux/kernel.h> /* for struct sysinfo */ _syscall1(int, sysinfo, struct sysinfo *, info); /* Note: if you copy directly from the nroff source, remember to REMOVE the extra backslashes in the printf statement. */ int main(void) { struct sysinfo s_info; int error; error = sysinfo(&s_info); printf("code error = %d ", error); printf("Uptime = %lds Load: 1 min %lu / 5 min %lu / 15 min %lu " "RAM: total %lu / free %lu / shared %lu " "Memory in buffers = %lu Swap: total %lu / free %lu " "Number of processes = %d ", s_info.uptime, s_info.loads[0], s_info.loads[1], s_info.loads[2], s_info.totalram, s_info.freeram, s_info.sharedram, s_info.bufferram, s_info.totalswap, s_info.freeswap, s_info.procs); exit(EXIT_SUCCESS); } Sample Output code error = 0 uptime = 502034s Load: 1 min 13376 / 5 min 5504 / 15 min 1152 RAM: total 15343616 / free 827392 / shared 8237056 Memory in buffers = 5066752 Swap: total 27881472 / free 24698880 Number of processes = 40 SEE ALSO
intro(2), syscall(2), errno(3) COLOPHON
This page is part of release 3.27 of the Linux man-pages project. A description of the project, and information about reporting bugs, can be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/. Linux 2007-12-19 _SYSCALL(2)

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SYSINFO(2)						     Linux Programmer's Manual							SYSINFO(2)

NAME
sysinfo - returns information on overall system statistics SYNOPSIS
#include <sys/sysinfo.h> int sysinfo(struct sysinfo *info); DESCRIPTION
Until Linux 2.3.16, sysinfo() used to return information in the following structure: struct sysinfo { long uptime; /* Seconds since boot */ unsigned long loads[3]; /* 1, 5, and 15 minute load averages */ unsigned long totalram; /* Total usable main memory size */ unsigned long freeram; /* Available memory size */ unsigned long sharedram; /* Amount of shared memory */ unsigned long bufferram; /* Memory used by buffers */ unsigned long totalswap; /* Total swap space size */ unsigned long freeswap; /* swap space still available */ unsigned short procs; /* Number of current processes */ char _f[22]; /* Pads structure to 64 bytes */ }; and the sizes were given in bytes. Since Linux 2.3.23 (i386), 2.3.48 (all architectures) the structure is: struct sysinfo { long uptime; /* Seconds since boot */ unsigned long loads[3]; /* 1, 5, and 15 minute load averages */ unsigned long totalram; /* Total usable main memory size */ unsigned long freeram; /* Available memory size */ unsigned long sharedram; /* Amount of shared memory */ unsigned long bufferram; /* Memory used by buffers */ unsigned long totalswap; /* Total swap space size */ unsigned long freeswap; /* swap space still available */ unsigned short procs; /* Number of current processes */ unsigned long totalhigh; /* Total high memory size */ unsigned long freehigh; /* Available high memory size */ unsigned int mem_unit; /* Memory unit size in bytes */ char _f[20-2*sizeof(long)-sizeof(int)]; /* Padding to 64 bytes */ }; and the sizes are given as multiples of mem_unit bytes. sysinfo() provides a simple way of getting overall system statistics. This is more portable than reading /dev/kmem. RETURN VALUE
On success, zero is returned. On error, -1 is returned, and errno is set appropriately. ERRORS
EFAULT pointer to struct sysinfo is invalid CONFORMING TO
This function is Linux-specific, and should not be used in programs intended to be portable. The Linux kernel has a sysinfo() system call since 0.98.pl6. Linux libc contains a sysinfo() routine since 5.3.5, and glibc has one since 1.90. SEE ALSO
proc(5) COLOPHON
This page is part of release 3.44 of the Linux man-pages project. A description of the project, and information about reporting bugs, can be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/. Linux 2012-05-05 SYSINFO(2)
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