Unix ___domain socket: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 14:12, 11 July 2011

Revision as of 14:29, 8 October 2011

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[[named pipe]]s, Unix ___domain sockets may be created as [[byte stream]]s or as [[datagram]] sequences, while pipes are byte streams only. Processes using Unix ___domain sockets do not need to share a common ancestry. The programmer's application interface (API) for Unix ___domain sockets is similar to that of an [[Internet socket]], but does not use an underlying network protocol for communication. The Unix ___domain socket facility is a standard component of [[POSIX]] [[operating system]]s.

UNIXUnix ___domain sockets use the file system as address [[Namespace (computer science)|name space]]. They are referenced by processes as [[inodes]] in the file system. This allows two processes to open the same socket in order to communicate. However, communication occurs entirely within the operating system kernel.

In addition to sending data, processes may send [[file descriptor]]s across a Unix ___domain socket connection using the sendmsg() and recvmsg() system calls.