node-unix-dgram

Communicate over UNIX datagram sockets.

Usage

Server:

// One-shot server.  Note that the server cannot send a reply;
// UNIX datagram sockets are unconnected and the client is not addressable.
var unix = require('unix-dgram');
var server = unix.createSocket('unix_dgram', function(buf) {
  console.log('received ' + buf);
  server.close();
});
server.bind('/path/to/socket');

Client:

// Send a single message to the server.
var message = Buffer('ping');
var client = unix.createSocket('unix_dgram');
client.on('error', console.error);
client.send(message, 0, message.length, '/path/to/socket');
client.close();

API

Caveat emptor: events and callbacks are synchronous for efficiency reasons.

unix.createSocket(type, [listener])

Returns a new unix.Socket object. type should be 'unix_dgram'. Throws an exception if the socket(2) system call fails.

The optional listener argument is added as a listener for the 'message' event. The event listener receives the message as a Buffer object as its first argument.

socket.bind(path)

Create a server at path. Emits a 'listening' event on success or an 'error' event if the bind(2) system call fails.

socket.send(buf, offset, length, path, [callback]);

Send a message to the server listening at path.

buf is a Buffer object containing the message to send, offset is the offset into the buffer and length is the length of the message.

Example:

var buf = new Buffer('foobarbaz');
socket.send(buf, 3, 4, '/path/to/socket');  // Sends 'barb'.

socket.close()

Close the socket. If the socket was bound to a path with socket.bind(), then you will no longer receive new messages. The file system entity (the socket file) is not automatically unlinked.