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(libc.info)Socket Pairs

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Socket Pairs
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   A "socket pair" consists of a pair of connected (but unnamed)
sockets.  It is very similar to a pipe and is used in much the same
way.  Socket pairs are created with the `socketpair' function, declared
in `sys/socket.h'.  A socket pair is much like a pipe; the main
difference is that the socket pair is bidirectional, whereas the pipe
has one input-only end and one output-only end (Note: Pipes and
FIFOs).

 - Function: int socketpair (int NAMESPACE, int STYLE, int PROTOCOL,
          int FILEDES[2])
     This function creates a socket pair, returning the file
     descriptors in `FILEDES[0]' and `FILEDES[1]'.  The socket pair is
     a full-duplex communications channel, so that both reading and
     writing may be performed at either end.

     The NAMESPACE, STYLE and PROTOCOL arguments are interpreted as for
     the `socket' function.  STYLE should be one of the communication
     styles listed in Note: Communication Styles.  The NAMESPACE
     argument specifies the namespace, which must be `AF_LOCAL' (Note:
     Local Namespace); PROTOCOL specifies the communications
     protocol, but zero is the only meaningful value.

     If STYLE specifies a connectionless communication style, then the
     two sockets you get are not _connected_, strictly speaking, but
     each of them knows the other as the default destination address,
     so they can send packets to each other.

     The `socketpair' function returns `0' on success and `-1' on
     failure.  The following `errno' error conditions are defined for
     this function:

    `EMFILE'
          The process has too many file descriptors open.

    `EAFNOSUPPORT'
          The specified namespace is not supported.

    `EPROTONOSUPPORT'
          The specified protocol is not supported.

    `EOPNOTSUPP'
          The specified protocol does not support the creation of
          socket pairs.