UNIX(7P)																  UNIX(7P)

NAME

       UNIX - local communication domain protocol

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

       The  local  communication domain protocol, commonly referred to in the industry as the Unix domain protocol, utilizes the path name address
       format and the address family.  This protocol can be used as an alternative to the Internet protocol family (TCP/IP or UDP/IP) for communi-
       cation  between	processes executing on the same node.  It has a significant throughput advantage when compared with local IP loopback, due
       primarily to its much lower code execution overhead.  Data is looped back at the protocol layer (OSI Level 4), rather than  at  the  driver
       layer (OSI Level 2).

       Only is supported in the address family.

       The HP-UX implementation of the local communication domain protocol does not support the flag in (see recv(2)) and (see send(2)).

   Addressing
       socket addresses are path names.  They are limited to 92 bytes in length, including a terminating null byte.  Calls to to an socket utilize
       an addressing structure called (see bind(2)).  Pointers to this structure should be used in all socket system calls wherever they require a
       pointer to a

       The  include file defines this addressing structure.  Within this structure are two notable fields.  The first is sun_family, which must be
       set to The next is sun_path, which is the null-terminated character string that specifies the path name of the  file  associated  with  the
       socket (for example,

       Only  the  passive (listening) socket must bind to an address.  The active socket connects to that address, but it does not need an address
       of its own.

       For additional information on using sockets for interprocess communication, refer to the BSD Sockets Interface Programmer's Guide.

   Socket Buffer Size
       For stream and datagram sockets, the maximum send and receive buffer size is 262142 bytes.  The default buffer size is  32768  bytes.   The
       send and receive buffer sizes can be altered by using the and options of the system call.  Refer to getsockopt(2) for details.

AUTHOR

       was developed by the University of California, Berkeley.

SEE ALSO

       getsockopt(2), socket(2).

																	  UNIX(7P)