<pedantry>

A system call is a function within the operating system, typically implemented in the kernel, that userspace programs can invoke through a defined interface to perform low-level OS services. In Unix, system calls are documented in section 2 of the manual. Perl provides a number of builtin functions that correspond directly to Unix system calls such as fork, exec, sysopen, sysread, fcntl, etc.

system is a Perl function that invokes an external program, possibly through a sub-shell, and (generally) waits for its result. Calling system is not the same thing as a system call :)

</pedantry>

In reply to Re: system calls vs perl functions: Which should be faster in this example? by Errto
in thread system calls vs perl functions: Which should be faster in this example? by machinecraig

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