From: Sam Roberts <sroberts@...>
Date: 2005-01-07T04:12:09+09:00
Subject: Re: Socket.new question

Quoteing markusjais@yahoo.de, on Fri, Jan 07, 2005 at 04:01:30AM +0900:
> hello
> 
> I can create a socket object like this:
> 
>  Socket.new(Socket::PF_INET, Socket::SOCK_STREAM, 0)
> 
> but what exactly is the third parameter ??
> according to the Pickaxe this parameter is called "protocol".
> 
> what can I specify as a third parameter instead of 0 and do I need this 
> sometimes ??

From my systems socket manual page:

     The protocol specifies a particular protocol to be used with the
     socket.  Normally only a single protocol exists to support a
     particular socket type within a given protocol family.  However, it
     is possible that many protocols may exist, in which case a
     particular protocol must be speci- fied in this manner.  The
     protocol number to use is particular to the communication domain in
     which communication is to take place; see protocols(5).

from /etc/protocols:

  # See also http://www.isi.edu/in-notes/iana/assignments/protocol-numbers
  #
  ip      0       IP              # internet protocol, pseudo protocol
  number
  #hopopt 0       HOPOPT          # hop-by-hop options for ipv6
  icmp    1       ICMP            # internet control message protocol
  igmp    2       IGMP            # internet group management protocol
  ggp     3       GGP             # gateway-gateway protocol
  ipencap 4       IP-ENCAP        # IP encapsulated in IP (officially ``IP'')
  st2     5       ST2             # ST2 datagram mode (RFC 1819)

So, 0 means to use IP... which is probably what you want to do!


Cheers,
Sam