Unix and the python socket module?

Question

I've just come across sockets and the python socket module (and am quite new to python!). What are AF_UNIX and SOCK_STREAM variables (?) used for? I've found them in a bit of code (in a method of a class):

self._sock = socket.socket(socket.AF_UNIX, socket.SOCK_STREAM)

What is this assignment doing?

Answer 1

AF_UNIX is configuring the socket as a unix socket . A unix socket is a mechanism for two processes on the same system to communicate with each other. If it were set to AF_INET it would be a TCP/IP socket.

SOCK_STREAM is configuring how processes should talk over the socket, in this case the processes exchange a byte stream. See here .

You should also check out the python socket docs , as they're pretty good.