linux-gate.so.1
Ever wonder what the linux-gate.so.1 that shows up in ld output on Linux 2.6 systems is? I did today.
Johan Petersson has the answers.
Short (but less illuminating) summary: It’s a one-page-long “virtual” shared library provided by the kernel itself. Don’t go looking for it in your filesystem; you won’t find it. This little virtual shared library provides a single ‘syscall’ function, which is tailored to use the most efficient syscall method for the current hardware. Modern glibc uses it to implement syscalls behind-the-scenes.