My machine runs macOS 10.12. macOS is a BSD system. Let’s see what facilities this OS provides to processes. We’ll do so with a rough categorization of its system calls. We can see all man pages with man -k ., and filter to the system call pages with grep '(2)'. I did this and then roughly grouped the system calls by the thing they operate on. It’s probably inaccurate in places; I’ll update it as my knowledge improves.
getlogin(2), setlogin(2) - get/set login name
pthread_setugid_np(2) - Set the per-thread userid and single groupid
setregid(2) - set real and effective group ID
setreuid(2) - set real and effective user IDs
geteuid(2), getuid(2) - get user identification
getegid(2), getgid(2) - get group process identification
execve(2) - execute a file
fork(2) - create a new process
vfork(2) - spawn new process in a virtual memory efficient way
_exit(2) - terminate the calling process
acct(2) - enable or disable process accounting
getpid(2), getppid(2) - get parent or calling process identification
getsid(2) - get process session
issetugid(2) - is current process tainted by uid or gid changes
wait(2), wait3(2), wait4(2), waitpid(2) - wait for process termination
posix_spawn(2), posix_spawn posix_spawnp(2) - spawn a process
getpgid(2), getpgrp(2) - get process group
setpgid(2), setpgrp(2) - set process group
setsid(2) - create session and set process group ID
setegid(2), seteuid(2), setgid(2), setuid(2) - set user and group ID
pread(2), read(2), readv(2) - read input
pwrite(2), write(2), writev(2) - write output
poll(2) - synchronous I/O multiplexing
pselect(2) - synchronous I/O multiplexing a la POSIX.1g
sigaction(2) - software signal facilities
sigaltstack(2) - set and/or get signal stack context
sigblock(2) - block signals
sigpause(2) - atomically release blocked signals and wait for interrupt
sigpending(2) - get pending signals
sigprocmask(2) - manipulate current signal mask
sigsetmask(2) - set current signal mask
sigstack(2) - set and/or get signal stack context
sigsuspend(2) - atomically release blocked signals and wait for interrupt
sigvec(2) - software signal facilities
sigwait(2) - select a set of signals
kill(2) - send signal to a process
killpg(2) - send signal to a process group
pthread_kill(2) - send a signal to a specified thread
pthread_sigmask(2) - examine and/or change a thread's signal mask
close(2) - delete a descriptor
dup(2), dup2(2) - duplicate an existing file descriptor
getdtablesize(2) - get descriptor table size
i386_get_ldt(2), i386_set_ldt(2) - manage i386 per-process Local Descriptor Table entries
pipe(2) - create descriptor pair for interprocess communication
mkfifo(2) - make a fifo file
accept(2) - accept a connection on a socket
bind(2) - bind a name to a socket
connect(2) - initiate a connection on a socket
connectx(2) - initiate a connection on a socket
disconnectx(2) - disconnects a connection on a socket
getsockname(2) - get socket name
getsockopt(2), setsockopt(2) - get and set options on sockets
listen(2) - listen for connections on a socket
recv(2), recvfrom(2), recvmsg(2) - receive a message from a socket
send(2), sendmsg(2), sendto(2) - send a message from a socket
sendfile(2) - send a file to a socket
socket(2) - create an endpoint for communication
socketpair(2) - create a pair of connected sockets
shutdown(2) - shut down part of a full-duplex connection
getpeername(2) - get address of connected peer
chflags(2), fchflags(2) - set file flags
chmod(2), fchmod(2), fchmodat(2) - change mode of file
chown(2), fchown(2), lchown(2), fchownat(2) - change owner and group of a file
link(2), linkat(2) - make a hard file link
unlink(2), unlinkat(2) - remove directory entry
symlink(2), symlinkat(2) - make symbolic link to a file
readlink(2), readlinkat(2) - read value of a symbolic link
adjtime(2) - correct the time to allow synchronization of the system clock
getitimer(2), setitimer(2) - get/set value of interval timer
gettimeofday(2), settimeofday(2) - get/set date and time
nanosleep(2) - suspend thread execution for an interval measured in nanoseconds
aio_cancel(2) - cancel an outstanding asynchronous I/O operation (REALTIME)
aio_error(2) - retrieve error status of asynchronous I/O operation (REALTIME)
aio_read(2) - asynchronous read from a file (REALTIME)
aio_return(2) - retrieve return status of asynchronous I/O operation (REALTIME)
aio_suspend(2) - suspend until asynchronous I/O operations or timeout complete (REALTIME)
aio_write(2) - asynchronous write to a file (REALTIME)
mount(2), unmount(2) - mount or dismount a filesystem
quotactl(2) - manipulate filesystem quotas
setattrlist(2), fsetattrlist(2) - set file system attributes
statfs(2), statfs64(2), fstatfs(2), fstatfs64(2) - get file system statistics
getfsstat(2) - get list of all mounted file systems
getattrlist(2), fgetattrlist(2), getattrlistat(2) - get file system attributes
getattrlistbulk(2) - get file system attributes for multiple directory entries
getdirentriesattr(2), getdirentriesattr(NOW DEPRECATED)(2) - get file system attributes for multiple directory entries
searchfs(2) - search a volume quickly
nfsclnt(2) - NFS client services
nfssvc(2) - NFS services
creat(2) - create a new file
access(2), faccessat(2) - check accessibility of a file
clonefile(2) - create copy on write clones of files
open(2), openat(2) - open or create a file for reading or writing
exchangedata(2) - atomically exchange data between two files
fcntl(2) - file control
fhopen(2) - open a file by file handle
flock(2) - apply or remove an advisory lock on an open file
getfh(2) - get file handle
fstat(2), fstat64(2), lstat(2), lstat64(2), stat(2), stat64(2), fstatat(2) - get file status
fsync(2) - synchronize a file's in-core state with that on disk
ftruncate(2), truncate(2) - truncate or extend a file to a specified length
futimes(2), utimes(2) - set file access and modification times
lseek(2) - reposition read/write file offset
mknod(2) - make a special file node
rename(2), renameat(2), renamex_np(2), renameatx_np(2) - change the name of a file
revoke(2) - revoke file access
sync(2) - synchronize disk block in-core status with that on disk
umask(2) - set file creation mode mask
undelete(2) - attempt to recover a deleted file
getdirentries(2) - get directory entries in a filesystem independent format
mkdir(2), mkdirat(2) - make a directory file
rmdir(2) - remove a directory file
chdir(2), fchdir(2) - change current working directory
chroot(2) - change root directory
mmap(2) - allocate memory, or map files or devices into memory
mincore(2) - determine residency of memory pages
minherit(2) - control the inheritance of pages
mlock(2), munlock(2) - lock (unlock) physical pages in memory
mprotect(2) - control the protection of pages
msync(2) - synchronize a mapped region
munmap(2) - remove a mapping
brk(2), sbrk(2) - change data segment size
madvise(2), posix_madvise(2) - give advice about use of memory
shm_open(2) - open a shared memory object
shm_unlink(2) - remove shared memory object
shmat(2), shmdt(2) - map/unmap shared memory
shmctl(2) - shared memory control operations
shmget(2) - get shared memory area identifier
sem_close(2) - close a named semaphore
sem_open(2) - initialize and open a named semaphore
sem_post(2) - unlock a semaphore
sem_trywait(2), sem_wait(2) - lock a semaphore
sem_unlink(2) - remove a named semaphore
semctl(2) - control operations on a semaphore set
semget(2) - obtain a semaphore id
semop(2) - atomic array of operations on a semaphore set
kqueue(2), kevent(2), kevent64(2) - and kevent_qos kernel event notification mechanism
profil(2) - control process profiling
ptrace(2) - process tracing and debugging
setaudit_addr(2), setaudit(NOW DEPRECATED)(2) - set audit session state
getauid(2) - retrieve audit user ID
setauid(2) - set audit indentifier
audit(2) - commit BSM audit record to audit log
auditctl(2) - configure system audit parameters
auditon(2) - configure system audit parameters
getaudit_addr(2), getaudit(NOW DEPRECATED)(2) - retrieve audit session state
listxattr(2), flistxattr(2) - list extended attribute names
reboot(2) - reboot system or halt processor
removexattr(2), fremovexattr(2) - remove an extended attribute value
setgroups(2) - set group access list
setxattr(2), fsetxattr(2) - set an extended attribute value
au_bsm_to_fcntl_cmd(3), au_fcntl_cmd_to_bsm(3) - convert between BSM and local fcntl(2) command values
fpathconf(2), pathconf(2) - get configurable pathname variables
getentropy(2) - get entropy
getgroups(2) - get group access list
gethostuuid(2) - return a unique identifier for the current machine
getpriority(2), setpriority(2) - get/set program scheduling priority
getrlimit(2), setrlimit(2) - control maximum system resource consumption
getrusage(2) - get information about resource utilization
getxattr(2), fgetxattr(2) - get an extended attribute value
ioctl(2) - control device
I wrote this because I felt like it. This post is my own, and not associated with my employer.
Jim. Public speaking. Friends. Vidrio.