BIND

NAME

SYNOPSIS

#include <sys/types.h>          /* See NOTES */
#include <sys/socket.h>

int bind(int sockfd, const struct sockaddr *addr,
         socklen_t addrlen);

DESCRIPTION

It is normally necessary to assign a local address using bind() before a SOCK_STREAM socket may receive connections (see accept(2)).

The rules used in name binding vary between address families. Consult the manual entries in Section 7 for detailed information. For AF_INET see ip(7), for AF_INET6 see ipv6(7), for AF_UNIX see unix(7), for AF_APPLETALK see ddp(7), for AF_PACKET see packet(7), for AF_X25 see x25(7) and for AF_NETLINK see netlink(7).

The actual structure passed for the addr argument will depend on the address family. The sockaddr structure is defined as something like:

struct sockaddr {
    sa_family_t sa_family;
    char        sa_data[14];
}

RETURN VALUE

ERRORS

EACCES

The address is protected, and the user is not the superuser.

EADDRINUSE

The given address is already in use.

EBADF

sockfd is not a valid descriptor.

EINVAL

The socket is already bound to an address.

ENOTSOCK

sockfd is a descriptor for a file, not a socket.

The following errors are specific to Unix domain (AF_UNIX) sockets:

EACCES

Search permission is denied on a component of the path prefix. (See also path_resolution(7).)

EADDRNOTAVAIL

A nonexistent interface was requested or the requested address was not local.

EFAULT

addr points outside the user's accessible address space.

EINVAL

The addrlen is wrong, or the socket was not in the AF_UNIX family.

ELOOP

Too many symbolic links were encountered in resolving addr.

ENAMETOOLONG

addr is too long.

ENOENT

The file does not exist.

ENOMEM

Insufficient kernel memory was available.

ENOTDIR

A component of the path prefix is not a directory.

EROFS

The socket inode would reside on a read-only file system.

CONFORMING TO

NOTES

The third argument of bind() is in reality an int (and this is what 4.x BSD and libc4 and libc5 have). Some POSIX confusion resulted in the present socklen_t, also used by glibc. See also accept(2).  

BUGS

EXAMPLE

The following example shows how to bind a stream socket in the Unix (AF_UNIX) domain, and accept connections:

#include <sys/socket.h>
#include <sys/un.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>

#define MY_SOCK_PATH "/somepath"
#define LISTEN_BACKLOG 50

#define handle_error(msg) \
    do { perror(msg); exit(EXIT_FAILURE); } while (0)

int
main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
    int sfd, cfd;
    struct sockaddr_un my_addr, peer_addr;
    socklen_t peer_addr_size;

    sfd = socket(AF_UNIX, SOCK_STREAM, 0);
    if (sfd == -1)
        handle_error("socket");

    memset(&my_addr, 0, sizeof(struct sockaddr_un));
                        /* Clear structure */
    my_addr.sun_family = AF_UNIX;
    strncpy(my_addr.sun_path, MY_SOCK_PATH,
            sizeof(my_addr.sun_path) - 1);

    if (bind(sfd, (struct sockaddr *) &my_addr,
            sizeof(struct sockaddr_un)) == -1)
        handle_error("bind");

    if (listen(sfd, LISTEN_BACKLOG) == -1)
        handle_error("listen");

    /* Now we can accept incoming connections one
       at a time using accept(2) */

    peer_addr_size = sizeof(struct sockaddr_un);
    cfd = accept(sfd, (struct sockaddr *) &peer_addr,
                 &peer_addr_size);
    if (cfd == -1)
        handle_error("accept");

    /* Code to deal with incoming connection(s)... */

    /* When no longer required, the socket pathname, MY_SOCK_PATH
       should be deleted using unlink(2) or remove(3) */
}

SEE ALSO

COLOPHON