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X/Open Networking Services Library Functionssocket(3XNET)


NAME

 socket - create an endpoint for communication

SYNOPSIS

 
cc [ flag ... ] file ... -lxnet [ library ... ]
#include <sys/socket.h> 
int socket(int domain, int type, int protocol);

DESCRIPTION

 

The socket() function creates an unbound socket in a communications domain, and returns a file descriptor that can be used in later function calls that operate on sockets.

The function takes the following arguments:

domain
Specifies the communications domain in which a socket is to be created.
type
Specifies the type of socket to be created.
protocol
Specifies a particular protocol to be used with the socket. Specifying a protocol of 0 causes socket() to use an unspecified default protocol appropriate for the requested socket type.

The domain argument specifies the address family used in the communications domain. The address families supported by the system are implementation-dependent.

The <sys/socket.h> header defines at least the following values for the domain argument:

AF_UNIX
File system pathnames.
AF_INET
Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) address.
AF_INET6
Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) address.

The type argument specifies the socket type, which determines the semantics of communication over the socket. The socket types supported by the system are implementation-dependent. Possible socket types include:

SOCK_STREAM
Provides sequenced, reliable, bidirectional, connection-mode byte streams, and may provide a transmission mechanism for out-of-band data.
SOCK_DGRAM
Provides datagrams, which are connectionless-mode, unreliable messages of fixed maximum length.
SOCK_SEQPACKET
Provides sequenced, reliable, bidirectional, connection-mode transmission path for records. A record can be sent using one or more output operations and received using one or more input operations, but a single operation never transfers part of more than one record. Record boundaries are visible to the receiver via the MSG_EOR flag.

If the protocol argument is non-zero, it must specify a protocol that is supported by the address family. The protocols supported by the system are implementation-dependent.

The process may need to have appropriate privileges to use the socket() function or to create some sockets.

USAGE

 

The documentation for specific address families specify which protocols each address family supports. The documentation for specific protocols specify which socket types each protocol supports.

The application can determine if an address family is supported by trying to create a socket with domain set to the protocol in question.

RETURN VALUES

 

Upon successful completion, socket() returns a nonnegative integer, the socket file descriptor. Otherwise a value of -1 is returned and errno is set to indicate the error.

ERRORS

 

The socket() function will fail if:

EAFNOSUPPORT
The implementation does not support the specified address family.
EMFILE
No more file descriptors are available for this process.
ENFILE
No more file descriptors are available for the system.
EPROTONOSUPPORT
The protocol is not supported by the address family, or the protocol is not supported by the implementation.
EPROTOTYPE
The socket type is not supported by the protocol.

The socket() function may fail if:

EACCES
The process does not have appropriate privileges.
ENOBUFS
Insufficient resources were available in the system to perform the operation.
ENOMEM
Insufficient memory was available to fulfill the request.
ENOSR
There were insufficient STREAMS resources available for the operation to complete.

ATTRIBUTES

 

See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:

ATTRIBUTE TYPEATTRIBUTE VALUE
MT-LevelMT-Safe

SEE ALSO

 

accept(3XNET), bind(3XNET), connect(3XNET), getsockname(3XNET), getsockopt(3XNET), listen(3XNET), recv(3XNET), recvfrom(3XNET), recvmsg(3XNET), send(3XNET), sendmsg(3XNET), setsockopt(3XNET), shutdown(3XNET), socketpair(3XNET), attributes(5)


SunOS 5.9Go To TopLast Changed 8 Nov 1999

 
      
      
Copyright 2002 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All rights reserved. Use is subject to license terms.