system call

English

Noun

system call (plural system calls)

1. (computing) A function provided by an operating system to allow userspace programs access to privileged features, such as accessing the system's hardware.

   The OS provides a system call to open a file, returning file descriptor that can be used to access it.

2. (computing) A particular invocation of an operating-system-provided system-call function.

   After a system call, control is returned to the process.

Derived terms

• syscall