Here is Go's undocumented Syscall function:
func Syscall(trap, a1, a2, a3 uintptr) (r1, r2 uintptr, err Errno)
And here is the C definition:
long syscall(long number, ...);
Pretty different. So it's fairly obvious that trap
is number
, and a1
, a2
, and a3
allow for three arguments. I also worked out that r1
is the return value, and err
is errno
. But what is r2
? The syscall man page doesn't mention multiple return values.
It does give the actual calling conventions (still only one retval):
arch/ABI instruction syscall # retval error Notes
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
alpha callsys v0 a0 a3 [1]
arc trap0 r8 r0 -
arm/OABI swi NR - a1 - [2]
arm/EABI swi 0x0 r7 r0 -
arm64 svc #0 x8 x0 -
blackfin excpt 0x0 P0 R0 -
i386 int $0x80 eax eax -
ia64 break 0x100000 r15 r8 r10 [1]
m68k trap #0 d0 d0 -
microblaze brki r14,8 r12 r3 -
mips syscall v0 v0 a3 [1]
nios2 trap r2 r2 r7
parisc ble 0x100(%sr2, %r0) r20 r28 -
powerpc sc r0 r3 r0 [1]
s390 svc 0 r1 r2 - [3]
s390x svc 0 r1 r2 - [3]
superh trap #0x17 r3 r0 - [4]
sparc/32 t 0x10 g1 o0 psr/csr [1]
sparc/64 t 0x6d g1 o0 psr/csr [1]
tile swint1 R10 R00 R01 [1]
x86_64 syscall rax rax - [5]
x32 syscall rax rax - [5]
xtensa syscall a2 a2 -
But on x86 this is the implementation
#define INVOKE_SYSCALL INT $0x80
TEXT ·Syscall(SB),NOSPLIT,$0-28
CALL runtime·entersyscall(SB)
MOVL trap+0(FP), AX // syscall entry
MOVL a1+4(FP), BX
MOVL a2+8(FP), CX
MOVL a3+12(FP), DX
MOVL $0, SI
MOVL $0, DI
INVOKE_SYSCALL
CMPL AX, $0xfffff001
JLS ok
MOVL $-1, r1+16(FP)
MOVL $0, r2+20(FP)
NEGL AX
MOVL AX, err+24(FP)
CALL runtime·exitsyscall(SB)
RET
ok:
MOVL AX, r1+16(FP)
MOVL DX, r2+20(FP)
MOVL $0, err+24(FP)
CALL runtime·exitsyscall(SB)
RET
Now, I don't read assembly too well, but I'm pretty sure it is returning EDX in r2. Why?