socket(2)socket(2)NAMEsocket - Create an end point for communication and return 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 stan‐
dards as follows:
socket(): XNS4.0, 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 families.
Commonly used families are: UNIX pathnames Internet addresses (IPv4)
[Tru64 UNIX] Internet addresses (IPv6) Specifies the semantics of
communication. The sys/socket.h file defines the socket types. The fol‐
lowing 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 inter‐
faces. This type of socket is available only to a process with the
superuser privilege. Specifies a particular protocol to be used with
the socket. Specifying a protocol of 0 (zero) causes the socket() func‐
tion 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.
The sensitivity level of the new socket is inherited from the creating
process. The information label of the new socket is set to System Low.
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 follow‐
ing values: The process have not have appropriate privileges. The
addresses in the specified address family are not supported. The per-
process descriptor table is full. No more file descriptors are avail‐
able for the system. Insufficient resources were available in the sys‐
tem 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
the superuser privilege. The protocol is not supported by the speci‐
fied address family or the protocol is not supported. The socket type
is not supported by the protocol.
SEE ALSO
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)
Network Programmer's Guide
socket(2)
