CONNECT(2)

NAME
connect - initiate a connection on a socket

SYNOPSIS
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/socket.h>
int
connect(int s, const struct sockaddr *name, socklen_t namelen);

DESCRIPTION
The parameter s is a socket. If it is of type SOCK_DGRAM, this call specifies the peer with which the socket is to be associated; this address is that to which datagrams are to be sent, and the only address from which datagrams are to be received. If the socket is of type SOCK_STREAM, this call attempts to make a connection to another socket. The other socket is specified by name, which is an address in the communications space of the socket. namelen indicates the amount of space pointed to by name, in bytes. Each communications space interprets the name parameter in its own way. Generally, stream sockets may use connect() only once; datagram sockets may use connect() multiple times to change their association. Datagram sockets may dissolve the association by connecting to an invalid address, such as a null address.

RETURN VALUES
If the connection or binding succeeds, 0 is returned. Otherwise a -1 is returned, and a more specific error code is stored in errno.

ERRORS
The connect() call fails if:

[EBADF]
    S is not a valid descriptor.

[ENOTSOCK]
    S is a descriptor for a file, not a socket.

[EADDRNOTAVAIL]
    The specified address is not available on this machine.

[EAFNOSUPPORT]
    Addresses in the specified address family cannot be used with this socket.

[EISCONN]
    The socket is already connected.

[ETIMEDOUT]
    Connection establishment timed out without establishing a connection.

[EINVAL]
    A TCP connection with a local broadcast, the all-ones or a multicast address as the peer was attempted.

[ECONNREFUSED]
    The attempt to connect was forcefully rejected.

[EHOSTUNREACH]
    The destination address specified an unreachable host.

[EINTR]
    A connect was interrupted before it succeeded by the delivery of a signal.

[ENETUNREACH]
    The network isn't reachable from this host.

[EADDRINUSE]
    The address is already in use.

[EFAULT]
    The name parameter specifies an area outside the process address space.

[EINPROGRESS]
    The socket is non-blocking and the connection cannot be completed immediately. It is possible to select(2) or poll(2) for completion by selecting the socket for writing, and also use getsockopt(2) with SO_ERROR to check for error conditions.

[EALREADY]
    The socket is non-blocking and a previous connection attempt has not yet been completed.

The following errors are specific to connecting names in the UNIX-domain. These errors may not apply in future versions of the UNIX IPC domain.

[ENOTDIR]
    A component of the path prefix is not a directory.

[ENAMETOOLONG]
    A component of a pathname exceeded {NAME_MAX} characters, or an entire path name exceeded {PATH_MAX} characters.

[ENOENT]
    The named socket does not exist.

[EACCES]
    Search permission is denied for a component of the path prefix.

[EACCES]
    Write access to the named socket is denied.

[ELOOP]
    Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating the pathname.

[EPROTOTYPE]
    The file described by name is of a different type than s. E.g., s may be of type SOCK_STREAM whereas name may refer to a socket of type SOCK_DGRAM.

SEE ALSO
accept(2), getsockname(2), getsockopt(2), poll(2), select(2), socket(2)

HISTORY
The connect() function call appeared in 4.2BSD.