236 lines
9.5 KiB
Plaintext
236 lines
9.5 KiB
Plaintext
'\"
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'\" Copyright (c) 1996 Sun Microsystems, Inc.
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'\" Copyright (c) 1998-1999 Scriptics Corporation.
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'\"
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'\" See the file "license.terms" for information on usage and redistribution
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'\" of this file, and for a DISCLAIMER OF ALL WARRANTIES.
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'\"
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.TH socket n 8.6 Tcl "Tcl Built-In Commands"
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.so man.macros
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.BS
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'\" Note: do not modify the .SH NAME line immediately below!
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.SH NAME
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socket \- Open a TCP network connection
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.SH SYNOPSIS
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.sp
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\fBsocket \fR?\fIoptions\fR? \fIhost port\fR
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.sp
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\fBsocket\fR \fB\-server \fIcommand\fR ?\fIoptions\fR? \fIport\fR
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.BE
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.SH DESCRIPTION
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.PP
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This command opens a network socket and returns a channel identifier
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that may be used in future invocations of commands like \fBread\fR,
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\fBputs\fR and \fBflush\fR. At present only the TCP network protocol
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is supported over IPv4 and IPv6; future releases may include support
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for additional protocols. The \fBsocket\fR command may be used to
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open either the client or server side of a connection, depending on
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whether the \fB\-server\fR switch is specified.
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.PP
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Note that the default encoding for \fIall\fR sockets is the system
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encoding, as returned by \fBencoding system\fR. Most of the time, you
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will need to use \fBchan configure\fR to alter this to something else,
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such as \fIutf\-8\fR (ideal for communicating with other Tcl
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processes) or \fIiso8859\-1\fR (useful for many network protocols,
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especially the older ones).
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.SH "CLIENT SOCKETS"
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.PP
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If the \fB\-server\fR option is not specified, then the client side of a
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connection is opened and the command returns a channel identifier
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that can be used for both reading and writing.
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\fIPort\fR and \fIhost\fR specify a port
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to connect to; there must be a server accepting connections on
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this port. \fIPort\fR is an integer port number
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(or service name, where supported and understood by the host operating
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system) and \fIhost\fR
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is either a domain-style name such as \fBwww.tcl.tk\fR or
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a numerical IPv4 or IPv6 address such as \fB127.0.0.1\fR or \fB2001:DB8::1\fR.
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Use \fIlocalhost\fR to refer to the host on which the command is invoked.
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.PP
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The following options may also be present before \fIhost\fR
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to specify additional information about the connection:
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.TP
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\fB\-myaddr\fI addr\fR
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.
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\fIAddr\fR gives the domain-style name or numerical IP address of
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the client-side network interface to use for the connection.
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This option may be useful if the client machine has multiple network
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interfaces. If the option is omitted then the client-side interface
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will be chosen by the system software.
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.TP
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\fB\-myport\fI port\fR
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.
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\fIPort\fR specifies an integer port number (or service name, where
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supported and understood by the host operating system) to use for the
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client's
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side of the connection. If this option is omitted, the client's
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port number will be chosen at random by the system software.
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.TP
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\fB\-async\fR
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.
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This option will cause the client socket to be connected
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asynchronously. This means that the socket will be created immediately
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but may not yet be connected to the server, when the call to
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\fBsocket\fR returns.
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.RS
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.PP
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When a \fBgets\fR or \fBflush\fR is done on the socket before the
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connection attempt succeeds or fails, if the socket is in blocking
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mode, the operation will wait until the connection is completed or
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fails. If the socket is in nonblocking mode and a \fBgets\fR or
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\fBflush\fR is done on the socket before the connection attempt
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succeeds or fails, the operation returns immediately and
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\fBfblocked\fR on the socket returns 1. Synchronous client sockets may
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be switched (after they have connected) to operating in asynchronous
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mode using:
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.PP
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.CS
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\fBchan configure \fIchan \fB\-blocking 0\fR
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.CE
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.PP
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See the \fBchan configure\fR command for more details.
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.PP
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The Tcl event loop should be running while an asynchronous connection
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is in progress, because it may have to do several connection attempts
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in the background. Running the event loop also allows you to set up a
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writable channel event on the socket to get notified when the
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asynchronous connection has succeeded or failed. See the \fBvwait\fR
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and the \fBchan\fR commands for more details on the event loop and
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channel events.
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.PP
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The \fBchan configure\fR option \fB-connecting\fR may be used to check if the connect is still running. To verify a successful connect, the option \fB-error\fR may be checked when \fB-connecting\fR returned 0.
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.PP
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Operation without the event queue requires at the moment calls to \fBchan configure\fR to advance the internal state machine.
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.RE
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.SH "SERVER SOCKETS"
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.PP
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If the \fB\-server\fR option is specified then the new socket will be
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a server that listens on the given \fIport\fR (either an integer or a
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service name, where supported and understood by the host operating
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system; if \fIport\fR is zero, the operating system will allocate a
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free port to the server socket which may be discovered by using
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\fBchan configure\fR to read the \fB\-sockname\fR option). If the host
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supports both, IPv4 and IPv6, the socket will listen on both address
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families. Tcl will automatically accept connections to the given port.
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For each connection Tcl will create a new channel that may be used to
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communicate with the client. Tcl then invokes \fIcommand\fR (properly
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a command prefix list, see the \fBEXAMPLES\fR below) with three
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additional arguments: the name of the new channel, the address, in
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network address notation, of the client's host, and the client's port
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number.
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.PP
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The following additional option may also be specified before \fIport\fR:
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.TP
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\fB\-myaddr\fI addr\fR
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.
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\fIAddr\fR gives the domain-style name or numerical IP address of the
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server-side network interface to use for the connection. This option
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may be useful if the server machine has multiple network interfaces.
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If the option is omitted then the server socket is bound to the
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wildcard address so that it can accept connections from any
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interface. If \fIaddr\fR is a domain name that resolves to multiple IP
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addresses that are available on the local machine, the socket will
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listen on all of them.
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.PP
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Server channels cannot be used for input or output; their sole use is to
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accept new client connections. The channels created for each incoming
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client connection are opened for input and output. Closing the server
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channel shuts down the server so that no new connections will be
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accepted; however, existing connections will be unaffected.
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.PP
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Server sockets depend on the Tcl event mechanism to find out when
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new connections are opened. If the application does not enter the
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event loop, for example by invoking the \fBvwait\fR command or
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calling the C procedure \fBTcl_DoOneEvent\fR, then no connections
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will be accepted.
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.PP
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If \fIport\fR is specified as zero, the operating system will allocate
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an unused port for use as a server socket. The port number actually
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allocated may be retrieved from the created server socket using the
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\fBchan configure\fR command to retrieve the \fB\-sockname\fR option as
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described below.
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.SH "CONFIGURATION OPTIONS"
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.PP
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The \fBchan configure\fR command can be used to query several readonly
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configuration options for socket channels:
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.TP
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\fB\-error\fR
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.
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This option gets the current error status of the given socket. This
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is useful when you need to determine if an asynchronous connect
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operation succeeded. If there was an error, the error message is
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returned. If there was no error, an empty string is returned.
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.RS
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.PP
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Note that the error status is reset by the read operation; this mimics
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the underlying getsockopt(SO_ERROR) call.
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.RE
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.TP
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\fB\-sockname\fR
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.
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For client sockets (including the channels that get created when a
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client connects to a server socket) this option returns a list of
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three elements, the address, the host name and the port number for the
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socket. If the host name cannot be computed, the second element is
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identical to the address, the first element of the list.
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.RS
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.PP
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For server sockets this option returns a list of a multiple of three
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elements each group of which have the same meaning as described
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above. The list contains more than one group when the server socket
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was created without \fB\-myaddr\fR or with the argument to
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\fB\-myaddr\fR being a domain name that resolves multiple IP addresses
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that are local to the invoking host.
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.RE
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.TP
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\fB\-peername\fR
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.
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This option is not supported by server sockets. For client and accepted
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sockets, this option returns a list of three elements; these are the
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address, the host name and the port to which the peer socket is connected
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or bound. If the host name cannot be computed, the second element of the
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list is identical to the address, its first element.
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.TP
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\fB\-connecting\fR
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.
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This option is not supported by server sockets. For client sockets, this option returns 1 if an asyncroneous connect is still in progress, 0 otherwise.
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.PP
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.SH "EXAMPLES"
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.PP
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Here is a very simple time server:
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.PP
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.CS
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proc Server {startTime channel clientaddr clientport} {
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puts "Connection from $clientaddr registered"
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set now [clock seconds]
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puts $channel [clock format $now]
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puts $channel "[expr {$now - $startTime}] since start"
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close $channel
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}
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\fBsocket -server\fR [list Server [clock seconds]] 9900
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vwait forever
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.CE
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.PP
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And here is the corresponding client to talk to the server and extract
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some information:
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.PP
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.CS
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set server localhost
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set sockChan [\fBsocket\fR $server 9900]
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gets $sockChan line1
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gets $sockChan line2
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close $sockChan
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puts "The time on $server is $line1"
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puts "That is [lindex $line2 0]s since the server started"
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.CE
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.SH "HISTORY"
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Support for IPv6 was added in Tcl 8.6.
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.SH "SEE ALSO"
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chan(n), flush(n), open(n), read(n)
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.SH KEYWORDS
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asynchronous I/O, bind, channel, connection, domain name, host, network address, socket, tcp
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'\" Local Variables:
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'\" mode: nroff
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'\" End:
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