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Name

Synopsis

unix_socket = socket(AF_UNIX, type, 0);
error = socketpair(AF_UNIX, type, 0, int *sv);

Description

Valid socket types in the UNIX domain are: SOCK_STREAM, for a stream-oriented socket; SOCK_DGRAM, for a datagram-oriented socket that preserves message boundaries (as on most UNIX implementations, UNIX domain datagram sockets are always reliable and don’t reorder datagrams); and (since Linux 2.6.4) SOCK_SEQPACKET, for a connection-oriented socket that preserves message boundaries and delivers messages in the order that they were sent.

UNIX domain sockets support passing file descriptors or process credentials to other processes using ancillary data.

Address format

#define UNIX_PATH_MAX    108
struct sockaddr_un {
    sa_family_t sun_family;               /* AF_UNIX */
    char        sun_path[UNIX_PATH_MAX];  /* pathname */
};

The sun_family field always contains AF_UNIX.

Various systems calls (for example, bind(2) , connect(2) , and sendto(2) ) take a sockaddr_un argument as input. Some other system calls (for example, getsockname(2) , getpeername(2) , recvfrom(2) , and accept(2) ) return an argument of this type.

Three types of address are distinguished in the sockaddr_un structure:

*

pathname: a UNIX domain socket can be bound to a null-terminated filesystem pathname using bind(2) . When the address of a pathname socket is returned (by one of the system calls noted above), its length is

offsetof(struct sockaddr_un, sun_path) + strlen(sun_path) + 1

and sun_path contains the null-terminated pathname. (On Linux, the above offsetof() expression equates to the same value as sizeof(sa_family_t), but some other implementations include other fields before sun_path, so the offsetof() expression more portably describes the size of the address structure.)

For further details of pathname sockets, see below.

*

unnamed: A stream socket that has not been bound to a pathname using bind(2) has no name. Likewise, the two sockets created by socketpair(2) are unnamed. When the address of an unnamed socket is returned, its length is sizeof(sa_family_t), and sun_path should not be inspected.

*

abstract: an abstract socket address is distinguished (from a pathname socket) by the fact that sun_path[0] is a null byte (aq\0aq). The socket’s address in this namespace is given by the additional bytes in sun_path that are covered by the specified length of the address structure. (Null bytes in the name have no special significance.) The name has no connection with filesystem pathnames. When the address of an abstract socket is returned, the returned addrlen is greater than sizeof(sa_family_t) (i.e., greater than 2), and the name of the socket is contained in the first (addrlen - sizeof(sa_family_t)) bytes of sun_path. The abstract socket namespace is a nonportable Linux extension.

Pathname sockets

*

The pathname in sun_path should be null-terminated.

*

The length of the pathname, including the terminating null byte, should not exceed the size of sun_path.

*

The addrlen argument that describes the enclosing sockaddr_un structure should have a value of at least:

    offsetof(struct sockaddr_un, sun_path)+strlen(addr.sun_path)+1

or, more simply,

addrlen can be specified as sizeof(struct sockaddr_un).

There is some variation in how implementations handle UNIX domain socket addresses that do not follow the above rules. For example, some (but not all) implementations append a null terminator if none is present in the supplied sun_path.

When coding portable applications, keep in mind that some implementations have sun_path as short as 92 bytes.

Various system calls (accept(2) , recvfrom(2) , getsockname(2) , getpeername(2) ) return socket address structures. When applied to UNIX domain sockets, the value-result addrlen argument supplied to the call should be initialized as above. Upon return, the argument is set to indicate the actual size of the address structure. The caller should check the value returned in this argument: if the output value exceeds the input value, then there is no guarantee that a null terminator is present in sun_path. (See BUGS.)

Socket options

SO_PASSCRED

Enables the receiving of the credentials of the sending process in an ancillary message. When this option is set and the socket is not yet connected a unique name in the abstract namespace will be generated automatically. Expects an integer boolean flag.

Autobind feature

Sockets API

UNIX domain sockets do not support the transmission of out-of-band data (the MSG_OOB flag for send(2) and recv(2) ).

The send(2) MSG_MORE flag is not supported by UNIX domain sockets.

The use of MSG_TRUNC in the flags argument of recv(2) is not supported by UNIX domain sockets.

The SO_SNDBUF socket option does have an effect for UNIX domain sockets, but the SO_RCVBUF option does not. For datagram sockets, the SO_SNDBUF value imposes an upper limit on the size of outgoing datagrams. This limit is calculated as the doubled (see socket(7) ) option value less 32 bytes used for overhead.

Ancillary messages

SCM_RIGHTS

Send or receive a set of open file descriptors from another process. The data portion contains an integer array of the file descriptors. The passed file descriptors behave as though they have been created with dup(2) .

SCM_CREDENTIALS

Send or receive UNIX credentials. This can be used for authentication. The credentials are passed as a struct ucred ancillary message. Thus structure is defined in <sys/socket.h> as follows:

struct ucred {
    pid_t pid;    /* process ID of the sending process */
    uid_t uid;    /* user ID of the sending process */
    gid_t gid;    /* group ID of the sending process */
};

Since glibc 2.8, the _GNU_SOURCE feature test macro must be defined (before including any header files) in order to obtain the definition of this structure.

The credentials which the sender specifies are checked by the kernel. A process with effective user ID 0 is allowed to specify values that do not match its own. The sender must specify its own process ID (unless it has the capability CAP_SYS_ADMIN), its user ID, effective user ID, or saved set-user-ID (unless it has CAP_SETUID), and its group ID, effective group ID, or saved set-group-ID (unless it has CAP_SETGID). To receive a struct ucred message the SO_PASSCRED option must be enabled on the socket.

Ioctls

int value;error = ioctl(unix_socket, ioctl_type, &value);

ioctl_type can be:

SIOCINQ

Returns the amount of queued unread data in the receive buffer. The socket must not be in LISTEN state, otherwise an error (EINVAL) is returned. SIOCINQ is defined in <linux/sockios.h>. Alternatively, you can use the synonymous FIONREAD, defined in <sys/ioctl.h>.

Errors

EADDRINUSE

The specified local address is already in use or the filesystem socket object already exists.

ECONNREFUSED

The remote address specified by connect(2) was not a listening socket. This error can also occur if the target pathname is not a socket.

ECONNRESET

Remote socket was unexpectedly closed.

EFAULT

User memory address was not valid.

EINVAL

Invalid argument passed. A common cause is that the value AF_UNIX was not specified in the sun_type field of passed addresses, or the socket was in an invalid state for the applied operation.

EISCONN

connect(2) called on an already connected socket or a target address was specified on a connected socket.

ENOENT

The pathname in the remote address specified to connect(2) did not exist.

ENOMEM

Out of memory.

ENOTCONN

Socket operation needs a target address, but the socket is not connected.

EOPNOTSUPP

Stream operation called on non-stream oriented socket or tried to use the out-of-band data option.

EPERM

The sender passed invalid credentials in the struct ucred.

EPIPE

Remote socket was closed on a stream socket. If enabled, a SIGPIPE is sent as well. This can be avoided by passing the MSG_NOSIGNAL flag to sendmsg(2) or recvmsg(2) .

EPROTONOSUPPORT

Passed protocol is not AF_UNIX.

EPROTOTYPE

Remote socket does not match the local socket type (SOCK_DGRAM versus SOCK_STREAM)

ESOCKTNOSUPPORT

Unknown socket type.

Other errors can be generated by the generic socket layer or by the filesystem while generating a filesystem socket object. See the appropriate manual pages for more information.

Versions

Notes

Binding to a socket with a filename creates a socket in the filesystem that must be deleted by the caller when it is no longer needed (using unlink(2) ). The usual UNIX close-behind semantics apply; the socket can be unlinked at any time and will be finally removed from the filesystem when the last reference to it is closed.

To pass file descriptors or credentials over a SOCK_STREAM, you need to send or receive at least one byte of nonancillary data in the same sendmsg(2) or recvmsg(2) call.

UNIX domain stream sockets do not support the notion of out-of-band data.

Bugs

In addition, some implementations don’t require a null terminator when binding a socket (the addrlen argument is used to determine the length of sun_path) and when the socket address is retrieved on these implementations, there is no null terminator in sun_path.

Applications that retrieve socket addresses can (portably) code to handle the possibility that there is no null terminator in sun_path by respecting the fact that the number of valid bytes in the pathname is:

strnlen(addr.sun_path, addrlen - offsetof(sockaddr_un, sun_path))

Alternatively, an application can retrieve the socket address by allocating a buffer of size sizeof(struct sockaddr_un)+1 that is zeroed out before the retrieval. The retrieving call can specify addrlen as sizeof(struct sockaddr_un), and the extra zero byte ensures that there will be a null terminator for the string returned in sun_path:

void *addrp;
addrlen = sizeof(struct sockaddr_un);
addrp = malloc(addrlen + 1);
if (addrp == NULL)
    /* Handle error */ ;
memset(addrp, 0, addrlen + 1);
if (getsockname(sfd, (struct sockaddr *) addrp, &addrlen)) == -1)
    /* handle error */ ;
printf("sun_path = %s\n", ((struct sockaddr_un *) addrp)->sun_path);

This sort of messiness can be avoided if it is guaranteed that the applications that create pathname sockets follow the rules outlined above under Pathname sockets.

Example

For an example of the use of SCM_RIGHTS see cmsg(3) .

See Also

Colophon

Table of Contents

• Name
• Synopsis
• Description
• Address format
• Pathname sockets
• Socket options
• Autobind feature
• Sockets API
• Ancillary messages
• Ioctls
• Errors
• Versions
• Notes
• Bugs
• Example
• See Also
• Colophon