The series of articles deal with socket programming in Linux and tries to provide various examples with explanation. Stress is placed that all articles have a suitable example provided and an explanation provided.

The articles provide a start point for one to begin their study of socket programming in Linux. Suitable sample code are provided for most cases. The sample code have their analysis based on the linux terminl “ss” tool. The “ss” tool is a powerful tool to look at various socket statistics and should be available in most Ubuntu and other linux distrbutions.

There is a lot more that can be learnt about socket programming than this site. This site provides a start and provides a few practical examples to take it forward.

Some good books to refer for socket programming are 

• The Linux Programming Interface – Michael Kerrisk
• Unix Network Programming – W. Richard stevens, Bill Fenner, Andrew M. Rudoff

Happy reading

Table of Contents

• An Introduction to sockets
  • Basic Socket Communication APIs explained
• A Socket Server/Client Example – TCP Stream Sockets
  • Analyzing the stream socket connection
• A UDP Socket Connection
  • UDP Server/Client Example
    • Analyzing the UDP Socket Connection
• Socket Based IPC- Unix Domain Sockets
  • Understanding the Unix Stream Socket Connection
  • Unix Domain Stream Socket Example
    • Analyzing the Unix Domain Stream Socket Example
  • Unix Domain UDP Socket Connection Example
    • Analyzing the UDP Domain UDP Socket Code
• The connected UDP Socket Connection
  • The connected UDP socket code – setup
  • The Connected UDP socket code Example
    • Analyzing the Connected UDP Socket Code Example
• Abstract Namespace Socket Connections
  • Abstract Namespace AF_UNIX Stream Socket Code Example
    • Analyzing the Abstract Namespace stream socket code
  • The Abstract Namespace AF_UNIX Datagram Socket Code Example
    • Analyzing the AF_UNIX Abstract Namespace Datagram socket code example
• SocketPair Socket connection
• Sequenced socket (SOCK_SEQPACKET) connection
  • Sequenced Socket Packet code example
• Raw Sockets – An introduction
  • Raw Sockets – An Introduction (continued)
  • Analyzing TCP/UDP/IP headers for Raw Sockets
  • Raw Socket Code with IPPROTO_TCP protocol
    • Analysis of Raw Socket code for IPPROTO_TCP
  • Raw socket Code with IPPROTO_UDP protocol
    • Analysis of Raw Socket Code for IPPROTO_UDP
  • Using Connect and Bind on a Raw Socket
    • Raw Socket Example with Connect and Bind API – setup
    • Raw Socket Example with Connect and Bind API – code
    • Raw Socket Example with Connect and Bind API – UDP 
    • Analysis of Raw Socket code with Connect and Bind API
  • Raw Socket Communication with Datalink Layer
    • Raw Socket Communication with Datalink Layer – code example
  • Raw Socket Code – IPPROTO_RAW Example
  • Raw Socket Code – IP_HDRINCL Example
• IPv6 Socket Code Example
• Select and Poll API
  • The Select System call
  • The Select System Call API Code Example
  • The Poll System Call
  • The Poll API code Example
  • Select vs Poll API

An Introduction to Sockets