These helper functions are used to optimize the 64-bit time_t support on configurations that requires support for 32-bit time_t fallback (!__ASSUME_TIME64_SYSCALLS). The idea is once the kernel advertises that it does not have 64-bit time_t support, glibc will stop to try issue the 64-bit time_t syscall altogether. For instance: #ifndef __NR_symbol_time64 # define __NR_symbol_time64 __NR_symbol #endif int r; if (supports_time64 ()) { r = INLINE_SYSCALL_CALL (symbol, ...); if (r == 0 || errno != ENOSYS) return r; mark_time64_unsupported (); } #ifndef __ASSUME_TIME64_SYSCALLS <32-bit fallback syscall> #endif return r; On configuration with default 64-bit time_t this optimization should be optimized away by the compiler resulting in no overhead.