SchOS/docs/architecture/syscalls.md
Nexoniarz a4fbdb7437 epoll, eventfd, timerfd, signalfd
The set libwayland's event loop is made of, in kernel/sys/sys_event.c:
four kinds of descriptor with no inode, FD_EVENT, that read() drains
and poll() reports on. They were table entries returning ENOSYS that
read as done.

epoll registers (descriptor, file) pairs, so a closed descriptor
leaves the set; level- and edge-triggered, EPOLLONESHOT. Waiting is
poll()'s, a tick at a time. The old eventfd and signalfd numbers (284,
282) were aliased to the new calls and read flags from a garbage
register; they are their own entries now, with epoll_create and
epoll_pwait.

cmd/evtest checks each, then all four in one set. The plans are
brought up to date: everything Wayland was waiting on is built except
setsockopt.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01S1giNvrHTrPMPw7V6x1kQ4
2026-10-24 10:59:52 +02:00

132 lines
6 KiB
Markdown

# Syscalls, and the Linux personality
Two things happen at this boundary. SchOS has its own syscall numbering, and it
also answers Linux's — which is why musl, toybox and mksh run unmodified.
---
## One table, everything generated
**Syscalls are declared in exactly one place:**
[`kernel/sys/table.inc`](../../kernel/sys/table.inc). One line each.
```c
SYSCALL(nr, linux_nr, name) // implemented as sys_<name>()
SYSCALL_ALIAS(linux_nr, name) // a second Linux number for the same handler
```
Three things are generated from it by macro expansion, and none is
hand-maintained:
| Generated | Where |
|---|---|
| The `SYS_*` constants | `include/core/syscall.h` |
| The dispatch table | `kernel/sys/syscall.c` |
| The Linux translation map | `kernel/sys/linux_abi.c` |
Adding a syscall is therefore two edits: a line here, and a body written with
`SYSCALL_DEFINE(<name>)` in one of the `kernel/sys/sys_*.c` files.
**This replaced a two-place scheme and the reason is worth keeping.** The Linux
number used to live in a second hand-written table. Adding a syscall meant three
edits across two files, and forgetting the second one left the call *unreachable
from every musl-linked program* while looking perfectly registered in the first.
A syscall can no longer be half-registered.
## How a Linux binary runs
The translation is a flat array indexed by Linux syscall number, whose value is
the native `SYS_*` number — or 0, meaning not implemented, which dispatches to
`-ENOSYS`.
It is enabled **per process**, and selected automatically by `exec()`:
```c
// musl binaries have entry >= 0x100000; SchOS-native ones are linked at 0x4000
if (elf.entry >= LINUX_ABI_ENTRY_THRESHOLD)
myproc()->syscall_map = linux_syscall_map;
```
A link address is a crude discriminator and it is honest about being one. It
works because the two classes of binary in this system are linked by two
different linker scripts at two very different addresses.
There is also `enable_linux_abi()` as an explicit call, which is why
`cmd/schinit/main.c` carries a warning not to use it: doing so mid-process would
renumber the syscalls the caller still has to make.
### Native vs. Linux numbering
Some calls have no Linux equivalent and are marked `NO_LINUX`: `sleep`,
`uptime`, `reboot`, `shutdown`, `getmouse`, `vga_sync`, `schfs_index`,
`schfs_query`. These are reachable only from first-party programs linked
against `lib/`.
They all land on the same scratch index in the translation array and overwrite
each other there, which is harmless — no real Linux syscall uses that number, so
the slot is never dispatched.
### Where the two disagree on a name
`shutdown` is the one collision. SchOS has a native `shutdown()` that powers the
machine off, and Linux number 48 is the socket call. Two syscalls cannot share a
`sys_` function name, so Linux 48 maps to `sockshutdown`.
## What is implemented
Roughly 190 native numbers covering:
| Area | |
|---|---|
| Process | fork, exec, exit, wait/waitpid/wait4/waitid, clone, kill, sessions, process groups |
| Identity | the full real/effective/saved set for both uid and gid, groups, umask |
| Memory | mmap, munmap, mprotect, brk/sbrk, madvise, System V shared memory |
| Filesystem | the ordinary set, the whole `*at()` family, statfs, xattr, mount/umount2 |
| I/O | read/write, readv/writev, pread/pwrite, sendfile, poll/select/ppoll/pselect6, epoll (create, create1, ctl, wait, pwait), ioctl, fcntl |
| Sockets | socket, bind, listen, accept, connect, sendto, recvfrom, socketpair, setsockopt, getsockopt |
| Signals | rt_sigaction, rt_sigreturn, rt_sigsuspend, rt_sigpending, rt_sigtimedwait, sigaltstack |
| Time | gettimeofday, clock_gettime, clock_getres, nanosleep, clock_nanosleep, alarm, timers |
| Notification | eventfd, eventfd2, timerfd_create/settime/gettime, signalfd, signalfd4 -- see `kernel/sys/sys_event.c` |
### Argument fetching
`fetchint`, `fetchaddr`, `fetchstr` and `argptr` validate a user pointer through
the page tables and nothing else. They previously rejected any address
`>= proc->sz`, on the assumption that every valid user pointer lives in the
heap — which is wrong for stack addresses and for every `mmap`'d buffer, i.e.
for most pointers real programs pass.
`uva2ka()` translates a user virtual address and **returns the in-page offset**,
which it did not originally do. Every caller that read or wrote through a
non-page-aligned pointer — `TIOCGPGRP`, `TCGETS`, `getcwd`, signal masks,
`times()`, `sysinfo()` — was touching the wrong address whenever the pointer was
not page-aligned, i.e. almost always.
**`uva2ka()` guarantees only the page containing that address.** A structure
copied in bulk through one translation runs off the end of the mapped page when
the pointer lands near a boundary — and `P2V` is a flat offset, so "the next
page" in kernel space has nothing to do with the user's next page. That bug
corrupted unrelated kernel memory and crashed every freshly `exec`'d shell. Copy
field by field, each through its own translation, or use `copyin`/`copyout`.
---
## What it does not do
- **`sendmsg`/`recvmsg` carry `SCM_RIGHTS` and nothing else.**
`SCM_CREDENTIALS` is refused rather than ignored. See
[networking.md](networking.md#descriptor-passing).
- **No `memfd_create`.**
- **No `getsockname` or `getpeername`**, and `accept()` does not report an
AF_INET peer's address.
- **`setsockopt` handles six options** and answers `ENOPROTOOPT` for everything
else. `SO_RCVTIMEO`/`SO_SNDTIMEO` are among the refused.
- **`clone` does not share an address space**, so it is `fork` with extra steps.
- **`sched_setaffinity` is accepted and ignored.**
- **`getrusage` does not distinguish `RUSAGE_CHILDREN`** from `RUSAGE_SELF`, and
fills in only the calling process's own tick count.
- **The ABI is chosen by link address.** It works, and it is a heuristic rather
than a fact about the binary.
- **`/proc/<pid>/exe` is a regular file, not a symlink**, so `readlink()` on it
fails and `ps -o comm` prints `[init]` rather than `init`. Default `ps` and
`top` output is unaffected.