System call vs Function call

Question

What is the difference between a system call and a function call? Is fopen() a system call or a function call?

Answer 1

The question has excellent answers already, but I think I can add something (one segment from ostepthat isn't already in other answers

Sometimes system call and function call have the same signature, for example, open():

open()-system call

--- ~/Documents » man open(2)

OPEN(2)                 Linux Programmer's Manual           OPEN(2)

int open(const char *pathname, int flags);
int open(const char *pathname, int flags, mode_t mode);
...

open()-function call

$ man open(3)

--- ~/Documents » 
OPEN(3P)                        POSIX Programmer's Manual          OPEN(3P)
...

int open(const char *path, int oflag, ...);

...

Quoting form OSTEP

You may wonder why a call to a system call, such as open() or read(), looks exactly like a typical procedure call in C; that is, if it looks just like a procedure call, how does the system know it’s a system call, and do all the right stuff? The simple reason: it is a procedure call, but hidden inside that procedure call is the famous trap instruction. More specifically, when you call open() (for example), you are executing a procedure call into the C library. Therein, whether for open() or any of the other system calls provided, the library uses an agreed-upon calling convention with the kernel to put the arguments to open in well-known locations(e.g., on the stack, or in specific registers), puts the system-call number into a well-known location as well (again, onto the stack or a register), and then executes the aforementioned trap instruction. The code in the library after the trap unpacks return values and returns control to the program that issued the system call. Thus, the parts of the C library that make system calls are hand-coded in assembly, as they need to carefully follow convention in order to process arguments and return values correctly, as well as execute the hardware-specific trap instruction. And now you know why you personally don’t have to write assembly code to trap into an OS; somebody has already written that assembly for you.