BSD Sockets Interface Programmer's Guide

Chapter 6 133
Using UNIX Domain Stream Sockets
Writing the Client Process
Writing the Client Process
This section discusses the calls your client process must make to connect
with and be served by a server process.
Creating a Socket
The client process must call socket to create a communication endpoint.
socket and its parameters are described in the following table.
Include files: #include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/socket.h>
System call: s = socket(af, type, protocol)
int af, type, protocol;
Function result: socket number (HP-UX file descriptor), –1 if failure
occurs.
Example: s = socket (AF_UNIX, SOCK_STREAM, 0);
The socket number returned is the socket descriptor for the newly
created socket. This number is an HP-UX file descriptor and can be used
for reading, writing or any standard file system calls after a BSD Sockets
connection is established. A socket descriptor is treated like a file
descriptor for an open file.
When to Create Sockets
The client process should create sockets before requesting a connection.
Refer to the socket(2) man page for more information on socket.
Parameter Description of Contents INPUT Value
af address family AF_UNIX
type socket type SOCK_STREAM
protocol underlying protocol to be
used
0 (default)