In computing, a system call is how a program requests a service from an operating system's kernel. This may include hardware related services (e.g. accessing the hard disk), creating and executing new processes, and communicating with integral kernel services (like scheduling). System calls provide an essential interface between a process and the operating system.
Read more about System Call: Privileges, The Library As An Intermediary, Examples and Tools, Typical Implementations, Processor Mode and Context Switching
Famous quotes containing the words system and/or call:
“I need not say what match I would touch, what system endeavor to blow up; but as I love my life, I would side with the light, and let the dark earth roll from under me, calling my mother and my brother to follow.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“She was not quite what you would call refined. She was not quite what you would call unrefined. She was the kind of person that keeps a parrot.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)