System procedures are:
Shortcuts for retrieving information from the system tables
Mechanisms for performing database administration and other tasks that involve updating system tables
Most of the time, system tables are updated only through stored procedures. A System Administrator can allow direct updates of system tables by changing a configuration variable and issuing the reconfigure with override command. See the System Administration Guide for details.
The names of system procedures begin with “sp_”. They are created by the installmaster script in the sybsystemprocs database during Adaptive Server installation.
