Interprocess Communications in Linux®: The Nooks & Crannies

Chapter 10. Sockets

Introduction

One of the nice things about UNIX and its variants is that they use a common interface for the access of files and devices that reside on a single host. By using a file descriptor generated by an open system call, the user can easily read data from and write data to the file descriptor. This can be done without being overly concerned with the underlying mechanics of the process and without knowing to which device the descriptor has been mapped (e.g., the screen, a file on disk, etc.). When we discussed the use of pipes, we saw a similar approach. With pipes, we could have two-way (duplex) communications using read ...