Unix Socket Programming

Last update: May 21/96

Image: Vic's ugly mug I've added a few new questions, including:

II.18: What is the difference between read() and recv()? I don't really provide much of an answer. Maybe someone can offer a better answer before next months edition...
IV.11: How should I choose a port number for my server?
IV.12: What is the difference between SO_REUSEADDR and SO_REUSEPORT?

I've also added a sample of the security problem with SO_REUSEADDR. The sample code is no longer included in the faq, either here on on usenet or ftp. It is only available here on the web pages or email, as described in Appendix A of the faq.

This page has two homes! The main one is at http://www.auroraonline.com/sock-faq in Canada, and the other is at http://kipper.york.ac.uk/~vic/sock-faq in the UK, thanks to Stephen Parker.

Read the unix-socket-faq!
Read the patch
Download sample source code.

I've had questions from people regarding the .gz and .zip extensions used in some of the items on this page, including the sample source. The .gz extension is for gnu-zip'd files. You can download the source at ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu/gzip-1.2.4.tar. The zip files can be uncompressed with the info-zip package. You can get info-zip from their www page at http://quest.jpl.nasa.gov/Info-Zip/Info-Zip.html.

Interesting items:

The Simple Sockets Library by Charles E. Campbell Jr. PhD., and Terry McRoberts
BSD Sockets: A Quick And Dirty Primer
An Introducton to Socket Programming
An Introductory 4.4BSD Interprocess Communication Tutorial
An Advanced 4.4BSD Interprocess Communication Tutorial

Internet Standards:

Request For Comments:

Other interesting things:

That's all for now. Please mail comments to vic@brutus.tlug.org.

Special thanks to Aurora Online!, and kipper.york.ac.uk for providing me with the webspace for this page!