Unix ___domain socket

A Unix ___domain socket (UDS) or IPC socket (inter-process communication socket) is a virtual socket, similar to an internet socket that is used in POSIX operating systems for inter-process communication. The correct standard POSIX term is POSIX Local IPC Sockets.

These connections appear as byte streams, much like network connections, but all data remains within the local computer.

In addition to sending data, processes can send file descriptors across a Unix ___domain socket connection using the sendmsg() and recvmsg() system calls.

External links

• socketpair: create a pair of connected sockets – System Interfaces Reference, The Single UNIX Specification, Version 5 from The Open Group
• sendmsg: send a message on a socket – System Interfaces Reference, The Single UNIX Specification, Version 5 from The Open Group
• recvmsg: receive a message from a socket – System Interfaces Reference, The Single UNIX Specification, Version 5 from The Open Group
• cmsg: socket ancillary data, including sending/receiving file descriptors – System Interfaces Reference, The Single UNIX Specification, Version 5 from The Open Group
• ucspi-unix, UNIX-___domain socket client-server command-line tools
• unix ___domain sockets