4.3BSD/usr/man/man2/socket.2

.\" Copyright (c) 1983 Regents of the University of California.
.\" All rights reserved.  The Berkeley software License Agreement
.\" specifies the terms and conditions for redistribution.
.\"
.\"	@(#)socket.2	6.5 (Berkeley) 5/23/86
.\"
.TH SOCKET 2 "May 23, 1986"
.UC 5
.SH NAME
socket \- create an endpoint for communication
.SH SYNOPSIS
.nf
.ft B
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/socket.h>
.PP
.ft B
s = socket(domain, type, protocol)
int s, domain, type, protocol;
.fi
.SH DESCRIPTION
.I Socket
creates an endpoint for communication and returns a descriptor.
.PP
The
.I domain
parameter specifies a communications domain within which
communication will take place; this selects the protocol family
which should be used.
The protocol family generally is the same as the address family
for the addresses supplied in later operations on the socket.
These families are defined in the include file
.IR <sys/socket.h> .
The currently understood formats are
.PP
.RS
.nf
.ta 1.25i 1.75i
PF_UNIX	(UNIX internal protocols),
PF_INET	(ARPA Internet protocols),
PF_NS	(Xerox Network Systems protocols), and
PF_IMPLINK	(IMP \*(lqhost at IMP\*(rq link layer).
.fi
.RE
.PP
The socket has the indicated
.I type,
which specifies the semantics of communication.  Currently
defined types are:
.PP
.RS
.nf
SOCK_STREAM
SOCK_DGRAM
SOCK_RAW
SOCK_SEQPACKET
SOCK_RDM
.fi
.RE
.PP
A SOCK_STREAM type provides sequenced, reliable,
two-way connection based byte streams.
An out-of-band data transmission mechanism may be supported.
A SOCK_DGRAM socket supports
datagrams (connectionless, unreliable messages of
a fixed (typically small) maximum length).
A SOCK_SEQPACKET socket may provide a sequenced, reliable,
two-way connection-based data transmission path for datagrams
of fixed maximum length; a consumer may be required to read
an entire packet with each read system call.
This facility is protocol specific, and presently implemented
only for PF_NS.
SOCK_RAW sockets provide access to internal network protocols and interfaces.
The types SOCK_RAW,
which is available only to the super-user, and
SOCK_RDM, which is planned,
but not yet implemented, are not described here.
.PP
The
.I protocol
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 \*(lqcommunication domain\*(rq in which communication
is to take place; see
.IR protocols (3N).
.PP
Sockets of type SOCK_STREAM
are full-duplex byte streams, similar
to pipes.  A stream socket must be in a
.I connected
state before any data may be sent or received
on it.  A connection to another socket is created with a
.IR connect (2)
call.  Once connected, data may be transferred using
.IR read (2)
and
.IR write (2)
calls or some variant of the 
.IR send (2)
and
.IR recv (2)
calls.  When a session has been completed a
.IR close (2)
may be performed.
Out-of-band data may also be transmitted as described in
.IR send (2)
and received as described in
.IR recv (2).
.PP
The communications protocols used to implement a
SOCK_STREAM insure 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 \*(lqwarm\*(rq 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 a extended period (e.g. 5 minutes).
A SIGPIPE signal is raised if a process sends
on a broken stream; this causes naive processes,
which do not handle the signal, to exit.
.PP
SOCK_SEQPACKET sockets employ the same system calls
as SOCK_STREAM sockets.  The only difference
is that 
.IR read (2)
calls will return only the amount of data requested,
and any remaining in the arriving packet will be discarded.
.PP
SOCK_DGRAM and SOCK_RAW
sockets allow sending of datagrams to correspondents
named in
.IR send (2)
calls.  Datagrams are generally received with
.IR recvfrom (2),
which returns the next datagram with its return address.
.PP
An 
.IR fcntl (2)
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.
.PP
The operation of sockets is controlled by socket level
.IR options .
These options are defined in the file
.RI < sys/socket.h >.
.IR Setsockopt (2)
and
.IR getsockopt (2)
are used to set and get options, respectively.
.SH "RETURN VALUE
A \-1 is returned if an error occurs, otherwise the return
value is a descriptor referencing the socket.
.SH "ERRORS
The \fIsocket\fP call fails if:
.TP 20
[EPROTONOSUPPORT]
The protocol type or the specified protocol is not supported
within this domain.
.TP 20
[EMFILE]
The per-process descriptor table is full.
.TP 20
[ENFILE]
The system file table is full.
.TP 20
[EACCESS]
Permission to create a socket of the specified type and/or protocol
is denied.
.TP 20
[ENOBUFS]
Insufficient buffer space is available.
The socket cannot be created until sufficient resources are freed.
.SH SEE ALSO
accept(2), bind(2), connect(2), getsockname(2), getsockopt(2),
ioctl(2), listen(2), read(2), recv(2),
select(2), send(2), shutdown(2), socketpair(2), write(2)
.br
``An Introductory 4.3BSD Interprocess Communication Tutorial.''
(reprinted in UNIX Programmer's Supplementary Documents Volume 1, PS1:7)
``An Advanced 4.3BSD Interprocess Communication Tutorial.''
(reprinted in UNIX Programmer's Supplementary Documents Volume 1, PS1:8)