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Sys Calls

System calls allow applications to interface with the operating system kernel to perform low-level I/O operations. Some key system calls in Linux include open, close, read, write, and lseek. A system call is made by placing the system call number in the EAX register, arguments in other registers like EBX and ECX, and invoking the 0x80 interrupt. On error, the errno global variable may be set to indicate the issue.

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31 views9 pages

Sys Calls

System calls allow applications to interface with the operating system kernel to perform low-level I/O operations. Some key system calls in Linux include open, close, read, write, and lseek. A system call is made by placing the system call number in the EAX register, arguments in other registers like EBX and ECX, and invoking the 0x80 interrupt. On error, the errno global variable may be set to indicate the issue.

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Jaime Zelada
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System Calls

Lab 5

Linux System Calls


System calls are low level functions the operating system makes available to applications via a defined API (Application Programming Interface) System calls represent the interface the kernel presents to user applications. In Linux all low-level I/O is done by reading and writing file handles, regardless of what particular peripheral device is being accesseda tape, a socket, even your terminal, they are all files. Low level I/O is performed by making system calls.

Anatomy of a System Call


A System Call is an explicit request to the kernel made via a software interrupt. The interrupt call 0x80 call to a system call handler (sometimes called the call gate). The system call handler in turns calls the system call interrupt service routine (ISR). To perform Linux system calls we have to do following: Put the system call number in EAX register. Set up the arguments to the system call in EBX,ECX, etc. call the relevant interrupt (for DOS, 21h; for Linux, 80h). The result is usually returned in EAX.

There are six registers that are used for the arguments that the system call takes. The first argument goes in EBX, the second in ECX, then EDX, ESI, EDI, and finally EBP. If more then 6 arguments needed (not likely), the EBX register must contain the memory location where the list of arguments is stored. We will learn 5 basic system calls: sys_open sys_close sys_read sys_write sys_lseek. Files (in Linux everything is a file) are referenced by an integer file descriptor.

1. Sys_open - open a file system call number (in EAX): 5 arguments: EBX: The pathname of the file to open/create ECX: set file access bits (can be ORd togather): O_RDONLY open for reading only O_WRONLY open for writing only O_RDRW open for both reading and writing O_APPEND open for appending to the end of file O_TRUNC truncate to 0 length if file exists O_CREAT create the file if it doesnt exist EDX: set file permissions. Returns in EAX: file descriptor. On errors: -1.

2. Sys_close - close a file by file descriptor reference system call number (in EAX): 6 arguments:
EBX: file descriptor.

Returns in EAX: Errors: -1. 3. Sys_read - read up to count bytes from file descriptor into buffer system call number (in EAX): 3 arguments: EBX: file descriptor. ECX: pointer to input buffer. EDX: buffer size, max. count of bytes to receive. Returns in EAX: number of bytes received. On Errors: -1 or 0 (no bits read).

4. Sys_write - write (up to) count bytes of data from buffer to file descriptor reference. system call number (in EAX): 4 arguments: EBX: file descriptor. ECX: pointer to output buffer. EDX: count of bytes to send. Returns in EAX: number of bytes send. On Errors: -1 or 0 (no bits written).

5. Sys_lseek - change file pointer. system call number (in EAX): 19 arguments: EBX: file descriptor. ECX: offset, given in number from the following parameter. EDX: either one of SEEK_SET 0 - beginning of file. SEEK_CUR 1 - current position. SEEK_END 2 - end of file. Returns in EAX: current file pointer position. On Errors: beginning of file position.

Error handling
System calls set a global integer called errno on error. The constants that errno may be set to are (partial list): EPERM operation not permitted. ENOENT no such file or directory (not there). EIO I/O error EEXIST file already exists. ENODEV no such device exists. EINVAL invalid argument passed.

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