Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!mit-eddie!ll-xn!ames!nrl-cmf!cmcl2!brl-adm!adm!dsill@NSWC-OAS.arpa
From: dsill@NSWC-OAS.arpa (Dave Sill)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: system
Message-ID: <11529@brl-adm.ARPA>
Date: 28 Jan 88 20:14:10 GMT
Sender: news@brl-adm.ARPA
Lines: 10

In article <1670009@otter.HP.COM> Christopher Dollin <kers@otter.HP.COM> writes:
>If -mkdir- (in a program) isn't a system call, how does -mkdir- (the program)
>work?

It uses mknod to make the directory, its dot ".", and its dot-dot "..".

>How come it wasn't a system call anyway?

Because mknod must be run by the super-user.  It's purpose is creating
special files.