How do I connect to a local Socket in C#?

Question

I'm trying to adapt this python code I found for connecting to the Dropbox daemon:

def connect(self, cmd_socket="~/.dropbox/command_socket", iface_socket="~/.dropbox/iface_socket"):
    "Connects to the Dropbox command_socket, returns True if it was successfull."
    self.iface_sck = socket.socket(socket.AF_UNIX, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
    self.sck = socket.socket(socket.AF_UNIX, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
    try:
        self.sck.connect(os.path.expanduser(cmd_socket)) # try to connect
        self.iface_sck.connect(os.path.expanduser(iface_socket))
    except:
        self.connected = False
        return False
    else: # went smooth
        self.connected = True
        return True

Here is what I have so far:

public bool Connect (int port) {
    return Connect ("~/.dropbox/command_socket", "~/.dropbox/iface_socket",
                    port);
}

public bool Connect (string cmdSocket, string ifaceSocket, int port)
{
    IfaceSocket = new Socket (AddressFamily.Unix, SocketType.Stream,
                              ProtocolType.IP);
    CmdSocket = new Socket (AddressFamily.Unix, SocketType.Stream,
                            ProtocolType.IP);

    try {
        // ExpandUser replaces a leading "/~" with the user's home directory
        IPAddress [] CmdIPs = Dns.GetHostAddresses (ExpandUser (cmdSocket));
        CmdSocket.Connect (CmdIPs [0], port);
        IPAddress [] IfaceIPs = Dns.GetHostAddresses (ExpandUser (ifaceSocket));
        IfaceSocket.Connect (IfaceIPs [0], port);
    } catch (Exception e) {
        // Debug
        Console.WriteLine (e);

        Connected = false;
        return false;
    }

    Connected = true;
    return true;
}

This compiles fine, but when I try to run it, I get System.Net.Sockets.SocketException: No such host is known . I assume this is because cmdSocket and ifaceSocket are paths, not IP addreses. Python appears to handle this automatically, how do I do it in C#? This is my first foray into socket programming, so please point out any obvious mistakes.

Answer 1

You need to use Mono.Unix.UnixEndPoint from Mono.Posix.dll instead of an IPEndPoint. Everything else is the same. See an example of how XSP uses it here .