erlang: UNIX domain socket support?

Question

Is there a way to access UNIX domain sockets (e.g. /var/run/dbus/system_bus_socket ) directly from Erlang without resorting to a third-party driver?

Answer 1

In Erlang/OTP 19.0, UNIX Sockets are now available, as stated in the readme:

OTP-13572 Application(s): erts, kernel

Related Id(s): PR-612

* HIGHLIGHT *

Experimental support for Unix Domain Sockets has been implemented. Read the sources if you want to try it out. Example: gen_udp:open(0, [{ifaddr,{local,"/tmp/socket"}}]). Documentation will be written after user feedback on the experimental API.

Example:

lsock.erl:

-module(lsock).
-export([watcher/1, test/0]).

watcher(Parent) -> 
  {ok, Sockin} = gen_udp:open(0, [{ifaddr, {local, "/tmp/testsockin"}}]),
  io:format("watcher ok? ~w ~w~n", [ok, Sockin]),
  Parent ! start,
  receive
    Msg -> io:format("watcher got: ~p ~n", [Msg]) end.

test() ->
  file:delete("/tmp/testsockin"),
  file:delete("/tmp/testsockout"),
  _ = spawn(lsock, watcher, [self()]),
  {ok, Sockout} = gen_udp:open(0, [{ifaddr, {local, "/tmp/testsockout"}}]),
  io:format("parent ok? ~w ~w~n", [ok, Sockout]),
  receive start ->
    gen_udp:send(Sockout, {local, "/tmp/testsockin"}, 0, "hi") end.

And the following demonstrates its results:

$ erlc lsock.erl 
$ erl
Erlang/OTP 19 [erts-8.0.1] [source-ca40008] [64-bit] [smp:2:2] [async-threads:10] [hipe] [kernel-poll:false]

Eshell V8.0.1  (abort with ^G)
1> lsock:test().
<0.58.0>
parent ok? ok #Port<0.455>
watcher ok? ok #Port<0.456>
watcher got: {udp,#Port<0.456>,{local,<<"/tmp/testsockout">>},0,"hi"} 
ok
2>