| Noun | 1. | socket - a bony hollow into which a structure fits |
| 2. | socket - receptacle where something (a pipe or probe or end of a bone) is inserted | |
| 3. | socket - a receptacle into which an electric device can be inserted |
| (networking) | socket - The Berkeley Unix mechansim for creating a
virtual connection between processes. Sockets interface
Unix's standard I/O with its network communication
facilities. They can be of two types, stream (bi-directional)
or datagram (fixed length destination-addressed messages).
The socket library function socket() creates a communications
end-point or socket and returns a file descriptor with which
to access that socket. The socket has associated with it a
socket address, consisting of a port number and the local
host's network address. Unix manual page: socket(2). |