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/.

Linux                                              2015-12-28                                      SOCKETCALL(2)