What is the difference between a file and a socket?

While file or a “regular file” as it is referred to has a obvious use case to store data, socket is a special file which allows communication between two processes either on same machine or between two different machines.

What is the difference between a socket and a file handle Python?

Hypertext Transfer Protocol – HTTP A socket is much like a file, except that a single socket provides a two-way connection between two programs. You can both read from and write to the same socket. If you write something to a socket, it is sent to the application at the other end of the socket.

Is a socket a file?

Socket. A socket is a special file used for inter-process communication, which enables communication between two processes. In addition to sending data, processes can send file descriptors across a Unix domain socket connection using the sendmsg() and recvmsg() system calls.

What is the difference between a bind and an accept operation with socket programming?

Bind is used to allocate a particular port by system to a socket and no other process can use this particular port until the first process releases it. Finally accept is used by server socket when a client wants to connect to it while it was in the listening state.

What is the difference between open file and socket?

Sockets behave in some respects like UNIX files or devices, so they can be used with such traditional operations as read() or write() .

What is file descriptor of socket?

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. In Unix and Unix-like computer operating systems, a file descriptor (FD, less frequently fildes) is a unique identifier (handle) for a file or other input/output resource, such as a pipe or network socket.

Is a socket a file descriptor?

There is no difference between socket (descriptor) and file descriptor(s). Socket is just special form of file. For example, you can use same syscalls read() and write() on socket descriptors that are used on file descriptors.

What are file operations in Python?

Opening Files in Python Python has a built-in open() function to open a file. This function returns a file object, also called a handle, as it is used to read or modify the file accordingly. We can specify the mode while opening a file. In mode, we specify whether we want to read r , write w or append a to the file.

How do you create a socket file?

How to make a Server

1. Create a socket with the socket() system call.
2. Bind the socket to an address using the bind() system call.
3. Listen for connections with the listen() system call.
4. Accept a connection with the accept() system call.
5. Send and receive data using the read() and write() system calls.

Where are socket files stored?

The default location for the Unix socket file that the server uses for communication with local clients is /tmp/mysql. sock . (For some distribution formats, the directory might be different, such as /var/lib/mysql for RPMs.)

What is the difference between socket bind and connect?

bind() associates the socket with its local address [that’s why server side binds, so that clients can use that address to connect to server.] connect() is used to connect to a remote [server] address, that’s why is client side, connect [read as: connect to server] is used.

What the differences are between accept and connect?

connect() is used on the client side, and assigns a free local port number to a socket. In case of a TCP socket, it causes an attempt to establish a new TCP connection. accept() is used on the server side.

What is the difference between send() and write() in socket?

Socket is just special form of file. For example, you can use same syscalls read () and write () on socket descriptors that are used on file descriptors. The only difference between send () and write () is the presence of flags argument.

What is the difference between a socket and a file descriptor?

There is no difference between socket and file descriptors. Sockets are just special form of file. You can use same syscalls read() and write() that are used on file descriptors. ssize_t send(int sockfd, const void *buf, size_t len, int flags);

Why is a socket not a file?

Not all things in the ‘everything is a file’ implement all of the filesystem API. A socket doesn’t have any of the usual file properties like size, time/date, parent directory, etc. A socket can only be written and read as a stream, not in random access fashion as a file on a disk. They both use filesystem semantics to read and write them.

Are sockets also indices into the same table as files?

Yes, sockets are also indices into the same table as files. At least for UNIX systems (like Linux and OSX), Windows is different, which is why you can’t use e.g. read and write to receive and send data. Each process has its own “file” descriptor table.