System calls have come a long way since the interrupt days. vDSO has moved many simple syscalls (e.g. getpid()) into pure userspace, making them as fast as indirect function calls.

That still doesn't work for I/O, though. Arkanis has some simple measurements that show the difference between getpid() and read(), and it's clear that minimizing read() calls is still worth the effort.

So, how's the world doing on that? Here's h2load, an HTTP/2 load testing client that clearly has a reason for a performance focus, connecting and making 3 requests to a server:

socket(AF_INET6, SOCK_STREAM|SOCK_CLOEXEC|SOCK_NONBLOCK, IPPROTO_IP) = 5
setsockopt(5, SOL_TCP, TCP_NODELAY, [1], 4) = 0
connect(5, {sa_family=AF_INET6, sin6_port=htons(443), inet_pton(AF_INET6, "...", &sin6_addr), sin6_flowinfo=htonl(0), sin6_scope_id=0}, 28) = -1 EINPROGRESS (Operation now in progress)
epoll_ctl(4, EPOLL_CTL_ADD, 5, {EPOLLOUT, {u32=5, u64=4294967301}}) = 0
epoll_wait(4, [{EPOLLOUT, {u32=5, u64=4294967301}}], 64, 59743) = 1
getsockopt(5, SOL_SOCKET, SO_ERROR, [0], [4]) = 0
write(5, "\26\3\1\2\0\1\0\1\374\3\3$Xo\3a5:I\275\351Ge;\216b\201\300\312.\202\326"..., 517) = 517
read(5, 0x7fd01ac32ac3, 5)  = -1 EAGAIN (Resource temporarily unavailable)
epoll_ctl(4, EPOLL_CTL_MOD, 5, {EPOLLIN, {u32=5, u64=8589934597}}) = 0
epoll_wait(4, [{EPOLLIN, {u32=5, u64=8589934597}}], 64, 59743) = 1
read(5, "\26\3\3\0z", 5)    = 5
read(5, "\2\0\0v\3\3\233\317P\30\33f\17\3772\6K\2446\267N\304\313\232\177\364\224\n\334\37\324{"..., 122) = 122
read(5, "\24\3\3\0\1", 5)   = 5
read(5, "\1", 1)            = 1
read(5, "\27\3\3\0 ", 5)    = 5
read(5, "8\315\331bnq\370w\346+j~\310\330\213\30\17\301~9\200ezU:\321\228\6\274\365\212", 32) = 32
read(5, "\27\3\3\n!", 5)    = 5
read(5, "\265\366\242\vqr\241\260\373G\325\370\330\227A\376e\243JY\317\340\226x}Fo\\\364=\306\306"..., 2593) = 2593
read(5, "\27\3\3\1\31", 5)  = 5
read(5, "&\356\321\337\346\240q\317\n\307^\23\362\1\35]D\304gc\334\302\367\340\34C\273\313\316\307yo"..., 281) = 281
read(5, "\27\3\3\0E", 5)    = 5
read(5, "\246m\377@\212@\244\276#vB\211\362\277\23-\17>\324c\237\5\265\265<\370\276\374\20k\353\352"..., 69) = 69
write(5, "\24\3\3\0\1\1\27\3\3\0E)\235\322 \3\247N\216\202\300+\200\25K\177\341\376\300\212\235k"..., 80) = 80
write(5, "\27\3\3\0\200\314Z.\260t2\0\336\315\351L&\256\221\344\222\2453;\201\n\223\305\r\27=\260"..., 133) = 133
epoll_wait(4, [{EPOLLIN, {u32=5, u64=8589934597}}], 64, 59743) = 1
read(5, "\27\3\3\0J", 5)    = 5
read(5, "\325\27U^\346\20\2\320\266h\215\356DV\168\300K+\265\f\316|\355\337h\361\177\242V\213\271"..., 74) = 74
read(5, "\27\3\3\0J", 5)    = 5
read(5, "\0012/\311\351g\270\201\3176\273\245t\230[\257\336j3,\377\365\356\213W\225\301K\304\371\334l"..., 74) = 74
read(5, "\27\3\3\09", 5)    = 5
read(5, "yz,\375\306\0177T-\313M\7\256\376\r\vpY\215\222m\233\16\n\364\345\201\235\302\n\276\255"..., 57) = 57
read(5, "\27\3\3\0\32", 5)  = 5
read(5, "\346^[\215\243iA\324\343\37\200\245\311\270\331S\332\243\311\261\236\325\374\237\v\247", 26) = 26
read(5, 0x7fd01acb91c3, 5)  = -1 EAGAIN (Resource temporarily unavailable)
write(5, "\27\3\3\0\32\377Imr\325\234U\307Ez\253Un\346\276\6P\256\262\214\260\324J\250,\274", 31) = 31
epoll_wait(4, [{EPOLLIN, {u32=5, u64=8589934597}}], 64, 59743) = 1
read(5, "\27\3\3\0s", 5)    = 5
read(5, "\225\322\26\225\266\356\305hL\6\232)_\242_\310P\32H|zL\277\351c?\317\7G\252Z]"..., 115) = 115
read(5, 0x7fd01acb91c3, 5)  = -1 EAGAIN (Resource temporarily unavailable)
write(5, "\27\3\3\0%L\334\214\234\245X}1\213\4\0\3*bky\370:\344\357T\316\360\342\f\243;"..., 42) = 42
epoll_wait(4, [{EPOLLIN, {u32=5, u64=8589934597}}], 64, 59743) = 1
read(5, "\27\3\3\0s", 5)    = 5
read(5, "\351+\3gyf\305.V\272\373\354\240\231UI\222\25oq\244\200\0255c\221\301\t\2m\273\326"..., 115) = 115
read(5, 0x7fd01acb91c3, 5)  = -1 EAGAIN (Resource temporarily unavailable)
write(5, "\27\3\3\0%\300\337r\tR\252O,2\223B\256b\222\271\5\322\265\227\243\327\304G\10\272_3"..., 42) = 42
epoll_wait(4, [{EPOLLIN, {u32=5, u64=8589934597}}], 64, 59743) = 1
read(5, "\27\3\3\0s", 5)    = 5
read(5, "\323D\n\313\323\2\353q\324\210\317\213\30\2550\3738L\200D<\326\214b\366\24\335\"\31\311w\223"..., 115) = 115
read(5, 0x7fd01acb91c3, 5)  = -1 EAGAIN (Resource temporarily unavailable)
write(5, "\27\3\3\0\"\217P\25^*\232\311vCy=u\207;~\"Gf\203h\247\25m&\255\272`"..., 39) = 39
write(5, "\27\3\3\0\23\234SF\221\214\213\7<\336`\316\252\315\307\204\3\342AL", 24) = 24
shutdown(5, SHUT_WR)        = 0
close(5)                    = 0

(╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻

If you don't spend a lot of time reading strace output, that may not look odd or bad. It's a complete mess, though. Here's what stands out:

• The socket is created with SOCK_NONBLOCK. That's useful in some niche cases, but here it's mixed with epoll_wait() and this code is one-socket-per-thread anyway. That leads to behavior like calling connect(), getting EINPROGRESS back, and immediately calling epoll_ctl() and epoll_wait() to reconstruct blocking connect() behavior.
• TCP_NODELAY is set on the socket. That can be great if you know that you're writing chunks that should go out immediately. In this code, though, there are multiple write() calls one after another. With TCP_NODELAY, those get broken into separate packets, with lots of wasted overhead on the wire and at both ends.
• There's a call to getsockopt(SO_ERROR) just before a call to write(). If the socket was closed, the write() would fail with a distinct errno, so the getsockopt() is redundant.
• Wow, that's a lot of read() calls. Lots of small calls that are fulfilled with all the bytes they asked for, then immediately another read() for more data. h2load doesn't do this in unencrypted mode, so it's probably OpenSSL's fault.
• shutdown() gets called just before close() on the same file descriptor, uselessly.

Issues like this frequently creep in with abstractions. Attempts to separate layers of parser logic, or to make the OpenSSL library API sensible, require you to do work in discrete chunks. It's possible to work around much of it with good buffer usage, but it can complicate things.

Want to avoid this in your code? Some suggestions:

• Make a conscious choice of model, rather than stumbling into one. Are you using epoll or one-socket-pre-thread?
• Consider optimisitic parsing.
• Avoid non-blocking sockets (SOCK_NONBLOCK and O_NONBLOCK). You really don't need them in either model.
• Use readv() and writev(). They let you avoid copying in/out a buffer for I/O if you're dealing with complex structures. Copies are better than syscalls, but they're still not free.
• Only set TCP_NODELAY if you're being careful with write().
• Don't pre-check for failure (getsockopt(SO_ERROR)). The socket can still go into error state between that call and your next read() or write(), so you have to handle errors in those anyway. That means the pre-check is useless, even if it catches 99% of closed connections.
• Run your code under strace regularly during development, and explain to yourself why each syscall is there.