Filed under: snippets
My notes about UNIX domain sockets are now on Scripts & Snippets. Here’s the condensed version.
Communication within a host
UNIX domain sockets are a method by which processes on the same host can communicate. Communication is bidirectional with stream sockets and unidirectional with datagram sockets.
Identity
Instead of identifying a server by an IP address and port, a UNIX domain socket is known by a pathname. Obviously the client and server have to agree on the pathname for them to find each other. The server binds the pathname to the socket.
File permissions control who can connect
For UNIX domain sockets, file and directory permissions restrict which processes on the host can open the file, and thus communicate with the server. Therefore, UNIX domain sockets provide an advantage over Internet sockets (to which anyone can connect, unless extra authentication logic is implemented).
Comparison with named pipes for IPC
IPC within a UNIX host by may be accomplished by several other means including named pipes. What circumstances favor UNIX domain sockets versus pipes? The choice is influenced by these factors:
- Duplex
- Stream sockets provide bi-directional communication while named pipes are uni-directional.
- Distinct clients
- Clients using sockets each have an independent connection to the server. With named pipes, many clients may write to the pipe, but the server cannot distinguish the clients from each other– the server has only one descriptor to read from the named pipe. Because the named pipe has only read descriptor and possibly-multiple writers, random interleaving can also occur if a client writes more than PIPE_BUF bytes in one operation. Since pipes have these limitations, UNIX domain sockets should be used if there are multiple clients that need to be distinguishable or which write long messages to the server.
- Method of creating and opening
- Sockets are created using socket and assigned their identity via bind. Named pipes are created using mkfifo. To connect to a UNIX domain socket the normal socket/connect calls are used, but a named pipe is written using regular file open and write. That makes them easier to use from a shell script for example.
Linux Abstract Socket Namespace
Linux has a special feature: if the pathname for a UNIX domain socket begins with a null byte , its name is not mapped into the filesystem. Thus it won’t collide with other names in the filesystem. Also, when a server closes its UNIX domain listening socket in the abstract namespace, its file is deleted; with regular UNIX domain sockets, the file persists after the server closes it.
Resources
Here are some C programs that implement a UNIX domain socket client and server. These are placed in the public domain.
Leave a Comment so far
Leave a comment
