(libc.info)Sockets


Sockets
*******

   This chapter describes the GNU facilities for interprocess
communication using sockets.

   A "socket" is a generalized interprocess communication channel.
Like a pipe, a socket is represented as a file descriptor.  Unlike pipes
sockets support communication between unrelated processes, and even
between processes running on different machines that communicate over a
network.  Sockets are the primary means of communicating with other
machines; `telnet', `rlogin', `ftp', `talk' and the other familiar
network programs use sockets.

   Not all operating systems support sockets.  In the GNU library, the
header file `sys/socket.h' exists regardless of the operating system,
and the socket functions always exist, but if the system does not
really support sockets these functions always fail.

   *Incomplete:* We do not currently document the facilities for
broadcast messages or for configuring Internet interfaces.  The
reentrant functions and some newer functions that are related to IPv6
aren't documented either so far.

Socket Concepts: Basic concepts you need to know about.
Communication Styles: Stream communication, datagrams and other styles.
Socket Addresses: How socket names (``addresses'') work.
Interface Naming: Identifying specific network interfaces.
Local Namespace: Details about the local namespace.
Internet Namespace: Details about the Internet namespace.
Misc Namespaces: Other namespaces not documented fully here.
Open/Close Sockets: Creating sockets and destroying them.
Connections: Operations on sockets with connection state.
Datagrams: Operations on datagram sockets.
Inetd: Inetd is a daemon that starts servers on request.
Socket Options: Miscellaneous low-level socket options.
Networks Database: Accessing the database of network names.

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