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In an [[UNIX]]-like system, a *system call* (*syscall*) is used to request all
kinds of functionality from the operating system kernel.

A [[microkernel]]-based system typically won't offer a lot of system calls --
apart from one central one, and that is *send message* -- but instead [[RPC]]s
will be used instead.
See [[GNU Mach's system calls|microkernel/mach/gnumach/interface/syscall]].

In the [[GNU Hurd|hurd]], a lot of what is traditionlly considered to be a UNIX
system call is implemented (primarily by means of [[RPC]]) inside [[glibc]].