socket(2) [osf1 man page]
socket(2) System Calls Manual socket(2) NAME
socket - Creates an end point for communication and returns a descriptor SYNOPSIS
#include <sys/socket.h> int socket ( int domain, int type, int protocol ); STANDARDS
Interfaces documented on this reference page conform to industry standards as follows: socket(): XNS5.0 Refer to the standards(5) reference page for more information about industry standards and associated tags. PARAMETERS
Specifies the communications domain in which a socket is to be created. The domain argument specifies the address family with which addresses specified in later socket operations should be interpreted. The sys/socket.h file contains the definitions of the address fami- lies. Commonly used families are: UNIX pathnames Internet addresses (IPv4) [Tru64 UNIX] Internet addresses (IPv6) Specifies the seman- tics of communication. The sys/socket.h file defines the socket types. The following types are supported: Provides sequenced, reliable, two-way byte streams with a transmission mechanism for out-of-band data. Provides datagrams, which are connectionless messages of a fixed maximum length. [Tru64 UNIX] Provides access to internal network protocols and interfaces. This type of socket is available only to a process with superuser privilege. Specifies a particular protocol to be used with the socket. Specifying a protocol of 0 (zero) causes the socket() function to default to the typical protocol for the requested type of returned socket. DESCRIPTION
The socket() function creates a socket of the specified type in the specified domain. The socket() function returns a descriptor (an integer) that can be used in later system calls that operate on sockets. Socket level options control socket operations. The getsockopt() and setsockopt() functions are used to get and set these options, which are defined in the sys/socket.h file. RETURN VALUES
Upon successful completion, the socket() function returns a nonnegative integer (the socket descriptor). Otherwise, a value of -1 is returned and errno is set to indicate the error. ERRORS
If the socket() function fails, errno may be set to one of the following values: The process have not have appropriate privileges. The addresses in the specified address family are not available in the kernel. The per-process descriptor table is full. No more file descriptors are available for the system. Insufficient resources were available in the system to complete the call. The system was unable to allocate kernel memory to increase the process descriptor table. The available STREAMS resources were insufficient for the operation to complete. [Tru64 UNIX] The process is attempting to open a raw socket and does not have superuser privilege. The socket in the specified address family is not supported. The socket type is not supported by the protocol. RELATED INFORMATION
Functions: accept(2), bind(2), connect(2), listen(2), getsockname(2), getsockopt(2), recv(2), recvfrom(2), recvmsg(2), send(2), sendto(2), sendmsg(2), setsockopt(2), shutdown(2), socketpair(2) Standards: standards(5) delim off socket(2)
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socket(3XNET) X/Open Networking Services Library Functions socket(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 func- tion calls that operate on sockets. 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. PARAMETERS
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 unspeci- fied 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. USAGE
The documentation for specific address families specify which protocols each address family supports. The documentation for specific pro- tocols 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 TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ |Interface Stability |Standard | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ |MT-Level |MT-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), standards(5) SunOS 5.10 10 Jun 2002 socket(3XNET)