SOCKETPAIR(3P) POSIX Programmer's Manual SOCKETPAIR(3P)PROLOG
This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual. The Linux
implementation of this interface may differ (consult the corresponding
Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior), or the interface may
not be implemented on Linux.
NAMEsocketpair — create a pair of connected sockets
SYNOPSIS
#include <sys/socket.h>
int socketpair(int domain, int type, int protocol,
int socket_vector[2]);
DESCRIPTION
The socketpair() function shall create an unbound pair of connected
sockets in a specified domain, of a specified type, under the protocol
optionally specified by the protocol argument. The two sockets shall be
identical. The file descriptors used in referencing the created sockets
shall be returned in socket_vector[0] and socket_vector[1].
The socketpair() function takes the following arguments:
domain Specifies the communications domain in which the sockets
are to be created.
type Specifies the type of sockets to be created.
protocol Specifies a particular protocol to be used with the sock‐
ets. Specifying a protocol of 0 causes socketpair() to use
an unspecified default protocol appropriate for the
requested socket type.
socket_vector
Specifies a 2-integer array to hold the file descriptors of
the created socket pair.
The type argument specifies the socket type, which determines the
semantics of communications over the socket. The following socket types
are defined; implementations may specify additional socket types:
SOCK_STREAM Provides sequenced, reliable, bidirectional, connection-
mode byte streams, and may provide a transmission mecha‐
nism for out-of-band data.
SOCK_DGRAM Provides datagrams, which are connectionless-mode, unre‐
liable messages of fixed maximum length.
SOCK_SEQPACKET
Provides sequenced, reliable, bidirectional, connection-
mode transmission paths 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 shall specify a protocol that
is supported by the address family. If the protocol argument is zero,
the default protocol for this address family and type shall be used.
The protocols supported by the system are implementation-defined.
The process may need to have appropriate privileges to use the socket‐
pair() function or to create some sockets.
RETURN VALUE
Upon successful completion, this function shall return 0; otherwise, −1
shall be returned and errno set to indicate the error.
ERRORS
The socketpair() function shall fail if:
EAFNOSUPPORT
The implementation does not support the specified address fam‐
ily.
EMFILE All, or all but one, of the file descriptors available to the
process are currently open.
ENFILE No more file descriptors are available for the system.
EOPNOTSUPP
The specified protocol does not permit creation of socket pairs.
EPROTONOSUPPORT
The protocol is not supported by the address family, or the pro‐
tocol is not supported by the implementation.
EPROTOTYPE
The socket type is not supported by the protocol.
The socketpair() 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.
The following sections are informative.
EXAMPLES
None.
APPLICATION USAGE
The documentation for specific address families specifies which proto‐
cols each address family supports. The documentation for specific pro‐
tocols specifies which socket types each protocol supports.
The socketpair() function is used primarily with UNIX domain sockets
and need not be supported for other domains.
RATIONALE
None.
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
None.
SEE ALSOsocket()
The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2008, <sys_socket.h>
COPYRIGHT
Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form
from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2013 Edition, Standard for Information Technology
-- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
Specifications Issue 7, Copyright (C) 2013 by the Institute of Electri‐
cal and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. (This is
POSIX.1-2008 with the 2013 Technical Corrigendum 1 applied.) In the
event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and
The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard
is the referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online
at http://www.unix.org/online.html .
Any typographical or formatting errors that appear in this page are
most likely to have been introduced during the conversion of the source
files to man page format. To report such errors, see https://www.ker‐
nel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .
IEEE/The Open Group 2013 SOCKETPAIR(3P)
