NAME

syscall  − test a system call

SYNOPSIS

­syscall [ ­-o ] ­entry [ ­arg ...  ]

DESCRIPTION

­Syscall makes the ­entry system call with the given arguments.  It prints the return value and the error string, if there was an error.  An argument is either an integer constant as in C (its value is passed), a string (its address is passed), or the literal ­buf (a pointer to a 1 Kbyte buffer is passed).  If ­-o is given, the contents of the 1 Kbyte buffer are printed as a string after the system call is done. 

EXAMPLES

Write a string to standard output

syscall write 1 hello 5

Print the last system call error string

syscall -o errstr buf

SEE ALSO

Section 2 of this manual. 

DIAGNOSTICS

If ­entry is not a system call name, the exit status is unknown.  If the system call succeeds, the exit status is null; otherwise the exit status is the string that errstr(2) returns.

Plan 9  —  January 03, 1993