NAME

       socketcall - socket system calls

SYNOPSIS

       int socketcall(int call, unsigned long *args);

DESCRIPTION

       socketcall()  is a common kernel entry point for the socket system calls.  call determines
       which socket function to invoke.  args points to a block containing the actual  arguments,
       which are passed through to the appropriate call.

       User  programs  should call the appropriate functions by their usual names.  Only standard
       library implementors and kernel hackers need to know about socketcall().

CONFORMING TO

       This call is specific to Linux, and  should  not  be  used  in  programs  intended  to  be
       portable.

NOTES

       On  a some architectures—for example, x86-64 and ARM—there is no socketcall() system call;
       instead socket(2), accept(2), bind(2), and so on really are implemented as separate system
       calls.

       On  x86-32,  socketcall()  was  historically  the  only  entry  point for the sockets API.
       However, starting in Linux 4.3, direct system calls are provided on x86-32 for the sockets
       API.  This facilitates the creation of seccomp(2) filters that filter sockets system calls
       (for new user-space binaries that are compiled to use  the  new  entry  points)  and  also
       provides a (very) small performance improvement.

SEE ALSO

       accept(2),  bind(2), connect(2), getpeername(2), getsockname(2), getsockopt(2), listen(2),
       recv(2),  recvfrom(2),  recvmsg(2),   send(2),   sendmsg(2),   sendto(2),   setsockopt(2),
       shutdown(2), socket(2), socketpair(2)

COLOPHON

       This  page  is  part of release 4.04 of the Linux man-pages project.  A description of the
       project, information about reporting bugs, and the latest version of  this  page,  can  be
       found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.