UNIX (BSD) Socket Programming

Sockets were developed by BSD UNIX. They are extensions to the pipe concept. The pipe is uni-directional, while sockets are bi-directional. A socket is defined as a communication endpoint. In Linux, sockets are used for communication between two processes on the same machine (UNIX socket) or different machines (INET sockets). Sockets are also used to communicate over IR or Bluetooth. Windows implementation of sockets (WinSock) is also based on the same API. This short video lists important socket system calls and their sequence of execution.