Manual Pages  — SOCKET

PF_LOCAL        Host-internal protocols (alias for PF_UNIX),
PF_UNIX         Host-internal protocols,
PF_INET         Internet version 4 protocols,
PF_INET6        Internet version 6 protocols,
PF_ROUTE        Internal routing protocol,
PF_LINK         Link layer interface,
PF_KEY          Internal key-management function,
PF_NATM         Asynchronous transfer mode protocols,
PF_NETGRAPH     Netgraph sockets,
PF_IEEE80211    IEEE 802.11 wireless link-layer protocols (WiFi),
PF_BLUETOOTH    Bluetooth protocols,
PF_INET_SDP     OFED socket direct protocol (IPv4),
PF_INET6_SDP    OFED socket direct protocol (IPv6)

SOCK_STREAM     Stream socket,
SOCK_DGRAM      Datagram socket,
SOCK_RAW        Raw-protocol interface,
SOCK_RDM        Reliably-delivered packet,
SOCK_SEQPACKET  Sequenced packet stream

SOCK_CLOEXEC    Set close-on-exec on the new descriptor,
SOCK_NONBLOCK   Set non-blocking mode on the new socket

The protocol argument specifies a particular protocol to be used with the socket. Normally only a single protocol exists to support a particular socket type within a given protocol family. However, it is possible that many protocols may exist, in which case a particular protocol must be specified in this manner. The protocol number to use is particular to the "communication domain" in which communication is to take place; see protocols(5).

The protocol argument may be set to zero (0) to request the default implementation of a socket type for the protocol, if any.

Sockets of type SOCK_STREAM are full-duplex byte streams, similar to pipes. A stream socket must be in a connected state before any data may be sent or received on it. A connection to another socket is created with a connect(2) system call. Once connected, data may be transferred using read(2) and write(2) calls or some variant of the send(2) and recv(2) functions. (Some protocol families, such as the Internet family, support the notion of an "implied connect", which permits data to be sent piggybacked onto a connect operation by using the sendto(2) system call.) When a session has been completed a close(2) may be performed. Out-of-band data may also be transmitted as described in send(2) and received as described in recv(2).

The communications protocols used to implement a SOCK_STREAM ensure that data is not lost or duplicated. If a piece of data for which the peer protocol has buffer space cannot be successfully transmitted within a reasonable length of time, then the connection is considered broken and calls will indicate an error with -1 returns and with ETIMEDOUT as the specific code in the global variable errno. The protocols optionally keep sockets "warm" by forcing transmissions roughly every minute in the absence of other activity. An error is then indicated if no response can be elicited on an otherwise idle connection for an extended period (e.g.amp; 5 minutes). By default, a SIGPIPE signal is raised if a process sends on a broken stream, but this behavior may be inhibited via setsockopt(2).

SOCK_SEQPACKET sockets employ the same system calls as SOCK_STREAM sockets. The only difference is that read(2) calls will return only the amount of data requested, and any remaining in the arriving packet will be discarded.

SOCK_DGRAM and SOCK_RAW sockets allow sending of datagrams to correspondents named in send(2) calls. Datagrams are generally received with recvfrom(2), which returns the next datagram with its return address.

An fcntl(2) system call can be used to specify a process group to receive a SIGURG signal when the out-of-band data arrives. It may also enable non-blocking I/O and asynchronous notification of I/O events via SIGIO.

The operation of sockets is controlled by socket level options. These options are defined in the file <sys/socket.h>. The setsockopt(2) and getsockopt(2) system calls are used to set and get options, respectively.

PS1, 7, An Introductory 4.3 BSD Interprocess Communication Tutorial,

PS1, 8, BSD Interprocess Communication Tutorial,