[$] C library system-call wrappers, or the lack thereof

User-space developers may be accustomed to thinking of system calls as directcalls into the kernel. Indeed, the first edition of The C ProgrammingLanguage described read() and write() as "adirect entry into the operating system". In truth, user-level"system calls" are just functions in the C library like any other. But whathappens when the developers of the C library refuse to provide access to system calls they don't like? The result is anongoing conflict that has recently flared up again; it shows some of thedifficulties that can arise when the system as a whole has no ultimatedesigner and the developers are not talking to each other.