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Name

Synopsis

#include <sys/types.h>          /* See NOTES */
#include <sys/socket.h>
int connect(int sockfd, const struct sockaddr *addr,            socklen_t
addrlen);

Description

If the socket sockfd is of type SOCK_DGRAM, then addr is the address to which datagrams are sent by default, and the only address from which datagrams are received. If the socket is of type SOCK_STREAM or SOCK_SEQPACKET, this call attempts to make a connection to the socket that is bound to the address specified by addr.

Generally, connection-based protocol sockets may successfully connect() only once; connectionless protocol sockets may use connect() multiple times to change their association. Connectionless sockets may dissolve the association by connecting to an address with the sa_family member of sockaddr set to AF_UNSPEC (supported on Linux since kernel 2.2).

Return Value

Errors

EACCES

For UNIX domain sockets, which are identified by pathname: Write permission is denied on the socket file, or search permission is denied for one of the directories in the path prefix. (See also path_resolution(7) .)

EACCES, EPERM

The user tried to connect to a broadcast address without having the socket broadcast flag enabled or the connection request failed because of a local firewall rule.

EADDRINUSE

Local address is already in use.

EADDRNOTAVAIL

(Internet domain sockets) The socket referred to by sockfd had not previously been bound to an address and, upon attempting to bind it to an ephemeral port, it was determined that all port numbers in the ephemeral port range are currently in use. See the discussion of /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_local_port_range in ip(7) .

EAFNOSUPPORT

The passed address didn’t have the correct address family in its sa_family field.

EAGAIN

Insufficient entries in the routing cache.

EALREADY

The socket is nonblocking and a previous connection attempt has not yet been completed.

EBADF

The file descriptor is not a valid index in the descriptor table.

ECONNREFUSED

No-one listening on the remote address.

EFAULT

The socket structure address is outside the user’s address space.

EINPROGRESS

The socket is nonblocking and the connection cannot be completed immediately. It is possible to select(2) or poll(2) for completion by selecting the socket for writing. After select(2) indicates writability, use getsockopt(2) to read the SO_ERROR option at level SOL_SOCKET to determine whether connect() completed successfully (SO_ERROR is zero) or unsuccessfully (SO_ERROR is one of the usual error codes listed here, explaining the reason for the failure).

EINTR

The system call was interrupted by a signal that was caught; see signal(7) .

EISCONN

The socket is already connected.

ENETUNREACH

Network is unreachable.

ENOTSOCK

The file descriptor is not associated with a socket.

EPROTOTYPE

The socket type does not support the requested communications protocol. This error can occur, for example, on an attempt to connect a UNIX domain datagram socket to a stream socket.

ETIMEDOUT

Timeout while attempting connection. The server may be too busy to accept new connections. Note that for IP sockets the timeout may be very long when syncookies are enabled on the server.

Conforming to

Notes

The third argument of connect() is in reality an int (and this is what 4.x BSD and libc4 and libc5 have). Some POSIX confusion resulted in the present socklen_t, also used by glibc. See also accept(2) .

If connect() fails, consider the state of the socket as unspecified. Portable applications should close the socket and create a new one for reconnecting.

Example

See Also

Colophon

Table of Contents

• Name
• Synopsis
• Description
• Return Value
• Errors
• Conforming to
• Notes
• Example
• See Also
• Colophon