Introduction to Unix sockets
UNIX sockets, also known as UNIX domain sockets, provide a way for processes to communicate with each other on the same machine quickly and efficiently, offering a local alternative to TCP/IP sockets for IPC. This feature is unique to UNIX and UNIX-like operating systems such as Linux.
UNIX sockets can be either stream-oriented (such as TCP) or datagram-oriented (such as UDP). They are represented as filesystem nodes, such as files and directories. However, they are not regular files but special IPC mechanisms.
There are three key features:
- Efficiency: Data is transferred directly between processes without the need for network protocol overhead.
- Filesystem namespace: UNIX sockets are referenced by filesystem paths. This makes them easy to locate and use but also means they persist in the filesystem until explicitly removed.
- Security: Access to UNIX sockets can be controlled using filesystem permissions, providing a level of security...
