Comment by toast0
2 years ago
> The system ABI of Linux really isn't the syscall interface, its the system libc.
Which one? The Linux Kernel doesn't provide a libc. What if you're a static executable?
Even on Operating Systems with a libc provided by the kernel, it's almost always allowed to upgrade the kernel without upgrading the userland (including libc); that works because the interface between userland and kernel is syscalls.
That certainly ties something that makes syscalls to a narrow range of kernel versions, but it's not as if dynamically linking libc means your program will be compatible forever either.
> That certainly ties something that makes syscalls to a narrow range of kernel versions
I don't think that's right, wouldn't it be the earliest kernel supporting that call and onwards? The Linux ABI intentionally never breaks userland.
In the case where you're running an Operating System that provides a libc and is OK with removing older syscalls, there's a beginning and an end to support.
Looking at FreeBSD under /usr/include/sys/syscall.h, there's a good number of retired syscalls.
On Linux under /usr/include/x86_64-linux-gnu/asm/unistd_32.h I see a fair number of missing numbers --- not sure what those are about, but 222, 223, 251, 285, and 387-392 are missing. (on Debian 12.1 with linux-image-6.1.0-12-amd64 version 6.1.52-1, if it matters)