The first response about C not knowing how to do syscalls with multiple arguments is wrong. This kind of thing is done via the system syscall interface. In fact

The first response about C not knowing how to do syscalls with multiple arguments is wrong. This kind of thing is done via the system syscall interface. In fact, the more I think about it the more wrong he becomes. System call interfaces don't have any such thing as "language dependence" -- if you can't do a syscall in straight object code you're screwed no matter what language you're using. The syscall intrinsic in C and C++ is a nonstandard Linux defined relation between the OS syscall interface (per the OS designation for the ISA) and code being run. Here's how you do a 2-arg mkdir: push %rax push %rbx push %rcx movq $0x27, %rax movq $path, %rbx movq $mode, %rcx int $0x80 Here's how you do a 3-arg: push %rax push %rbx push %rcx push %rdx movq $0x128, %rax movq $dfd, %rbx movq $path, %rcx movq $mode, %rdx int $0x80 Edit: Hmm, maybe he was referring to overloading the intrinsic. That kind of makes sense, although there's a standard way to do that if necessary (first arg is number of args, just pop x off the stack after the call, see printf).