List of and documentation for system calls for XNU kernel in OSX

Question

I'm trying to figure out how to get a list of and documentation for the system calls available in the XNU kernel in OSX. I've googled around quite a bit, but haven't been able to find anything of use. As I understand the calling conventions match BSD, is that correct?

Thanks

Answer 1

The "officiail" list is at Darwin page at Apple. Specifically, see the file syscalls.master in the XNU distribution.

The BSD part of the system calls comes from BSD, but there're mach calls which follow quite different conventions.

You'll definitely want to read Amit Singh's OS X kernel book, see the book's website. It's rewritten for 10.4 and mainly for PPC, but still is the greatest detailed info you can get on the kernel.