connect() - Establishing a Socket Communication

This section describes Perl built-in functions: socket(), bind(), listen(), accept(), and connect(), that can be used for the server program and client program to establish a socket communication.

In the previous section, we only discussed about how socket works with a communication link that has been established already. Now, let's see how two application programs can establish a communication link between them.

To establish a communication link, one application program must act as a server, create a server socket with a given port number, and set the server socket in the listen mode waiting for a connection request from other program.

With one program running as a server listening for a connection request at a specific port number, the other program can now create socket with a given local port number, the Internet address of the computer system where the first program is running, and the port number where the server socket is listening. At this time, a connect request will be send over to the server socket. The server socket should then accept the connect request and instantiate a socket object to complete communication link.

Perl offers several built-in functions to support socket communication:

socket() - Creates a socket handle for the specified communication domain, type and protocol. For example:

   $domain = 2; # Internet domain
   $type = 1; # Sequenced, reliable, two-way connection, byte streams
   $proto = 6; # Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)
   socket(SOCK,$domain,$type,$proto);

bind() - Binds a socket handle to a local address that represents a port on the local system. For example:

   $domain = 2; # Internet domain
   $host = pack('C4', 127,0,0,1); # localhost = 127.0.0.1
   $port = 8888;
   $address = pack('S n a4 x8', $domain, $port, $host);
   bind(SOCK, $address);

Note that host IP address must be packed into a 4-byte number, then put it into the address structure with the port number using the following format codes:

S An unsigned short value. 16 bits
n An unsigned short in "network" (big-endian) order. 16 bits
a A string with arbitrary binary data, will be null padded.
x A null byte.

listen() - Sets a socket handle to listen mode with the specified queue size of incoming connection requests. This function is only used by the server application. For example:

   $queueSize = 5;
   listen(SOCK, $queueSize);

accept() - Waits for incoming connection requests on the specified socket handle, accepts the first connection request, creates a new socket handle, one end bound to the same local address as the specified socket handle, the other end bound to the remote address received in the connection request, and returns the remove address. If no error, the new socket handle is ready for data transmission. This function is only used by the server application. For example:

   $address = accept(NEWSOCK,SOCK);

connect() - Sends a communication request to a remote address that represents a port on a remote system. When the remote system accepted the request, the specified socket handle will be bound to the remote address. If no error, the specified socket handle is ready for data transmission. This function is only used by the client application. For example:

   $domain = 2; # Internet domain
   $host = pack('C4', 216,109,118,67); # www.yahoo.com = 216.109.118.67
   $port = 80;
   $address = pack('S n a4 x8', $domain, $port, $host);
   connect(SOCK, $address);

The following diagram shows the steps involved in establishing an Internet socket communication link using the built-in functions:

       Client System            Server System
       Internet Address #a      Internet Address #b
Step   Available Port #p        Available Port #q

1                               socket(SOCK,2,1,6);
2                               bind(SOCK,#b+#q);
3                               listen(SOCK,5);
4                               accept(NEWSOCK,SOCK);
5      Socket(SOCK,2,1,6);      (waiting)
6      bind(SOCK,#a+#p);        (waiting)
7      connect(SOCK,#b+#q);     (receiving request)
8      (establishing the link)  (establishing the link)
9      (SOCK is ready)          (NEWSOCK is ready)

Table of Contents

 About This Book

 Perl on Linux Systems

 ActivePerl on Windows Systems

 Data Types: Values and Variables

 Expressions, Operations and Simple Statements

 User Defined Subroutines

 Perl Built-in Debugger

 Name Spaces and Perl Module Files

 Symbolic (or Soft) References

 Hard References - Addresses of Memory Objects

 Objects (or References) and Classes (or Packages)

 Typeglob and Importing Identifiers from Other Packages

 String Built-in Functions and Performance

 File Handles and Data Input/Output

 Open Files in Binary Mode

 Open Directories and Read File Names

 File System Functions and Operations

 Image and Picture Processing

 Using DBM Database Files

 Using MySQL Database Server

Socket Communication Over the Internet

 What Is Socket Communication?

connect() - Establishing a Socket Communication

 ReverseEchoer.pl - A Simple Socket Server Program

 SocketClient.pl - A Simple Socket Client Program

 gethostbyaddr() - Network Utility Functions

 Socket.pm - The Socket Module

 XML::Simple Module - XML Parser and Generator

 XML Communication Model

 SOAP::Lite - SOAP Server-Client Communication Module

 Perl Programs as IIS Server CGI Scripts

 CGI (Common Gateway Interface)

 XML-RPC - Remote Procedure Call with XML and HTTP

 RPC::XML - Perl Implementation of XML-RPC

 Integrating Perl with Apache Web Server

 CGI.pm Module for Building Web Pages

 LWP::UserAgent and Web Site Testing

 Converting Perl Script to Executable Binary

 Managing Perl Engine and Modules on macOS

 Archived Tutorials

 References

 Full Version in PDF/EPUB