PHP Manual
Prev |  | Next

# socket_create

(PHP 4 >= 4.1.0)

socket_create -- Create a socket (endpoint for communication)

## Description

resource socket_create ( int domain, int type, int protocol)

Warning
This function is EXPERIMENTAL. The behaviour of this function, the name of this function, and anything else documented about this function may change without notice in a future release of PHP. Use this function at your own risk.

Creates a communication endpoint (a socket), and returns a socket resource.

The `domain` parameter sets the domain (protocol family) to be used for communication. Currently, `AF_INET` and `AF_UNIX` are understood. `AF_INET` is typical used for internet based communication. `AF_UNIX` uses pathnames to identify sockets and can therefore only be used for local communication (which is faster, on the other hand).

The `type` parameter selects the socket type. This is one of `SOCK_STREAM`, `SOCK_DGRAM`, `SOCK_SEQPACKET`, `SOCK_RAW`, `SOCK_RDM`, or `SOCK_PACKET`. The two most common types are `SOCK_DGRAM` for `UDP` (connectionless) communication and `SOCK_STREAM` for `TCP` communication.

`protocol` sets the protocol which is either `SOL_UDP` or `SOL_TCP`.

Returns a socket resource on success, or `FALSE` on error. The actual error code can be retrieved by calling socket_last_error(). This error code may be passed to socket_strerror() to get a textual explanation of the error.

For more information on the usage of socket_create(), as well as on the meanings of the various parameters, see the Unix man page socket (2).

> Note: If an invalid `domain` or `type` is given, socket_create() defaults to `AF_INET` and `SOCK_STREAM` respectively and additionally emits an `E_WARNING` message.

See also socket_accept(), socket_bind(), socket_connect(), socket_listen(), socket_last_error(), and socket_strerror().

Prev | Home | Next
socket_create_pair | Up | socket_get_option