:mod:`socket` --- Low-level networking interface

This module provides access to the BSD socket interface. It is available on all modern Unix systems, Windows, MacOS, and probably additional platforms.

The Python interface is a straightforward transliteration of the Unix system call and library interface for sockets to Python's object-oriented style: the :func:`.socket` function returns a :dfn:`socket object` whose methods implement the various socket system calls. Parameter types are somewhat higher-level than in the C interface: as with :meth:`read` and :meth:`write` operations on Python files, buffer allocation on receive operations is automatic, and buffer length is implicit on send operations.

Socket families

Depending on the system and the build options, various socket families are supported by this module.

The address format required by a particular socket object is automatically selected based on the address family specified when the socket object was created. Socket addresses are represented as follows:

• The address of an :const:`AF_UNIX` socket bound to a file system node is represented as a string, using the file system encoding and the 'surrogateescape' error handler (see PEP 383). An address in Linux's abstract namespace is returned as a :class:`bytes` object with an initial null byte; note that sockets in this namespace can communicate with normal file system sockets, so programs intended to run on Linux may need to deal with both types of address. A string or :class:`bytes` object can be used for either type of address when passing it as an argument.

• A pair (host, port) is used for the :const:`AF_INET` address family, where host is a string representing either a hostname in Internet domain notation like 'daring.cwi.nl' or an IPv4 address like '100.50.200.5', and port is an integer.

• For :const:`AF_INET6` address family, a four-tuple (host, port, flowinfo, scopeid) is used, where flowinfo and scopeid represent the sin6_flowinfo and sin6_scope_id members in :const:`struct sockaddr_in6` in C. For :mod:`socket` module methods, flowinfo and scopeid can be omitted just for backward compatibility. Note, however, omission of scopeid can cause problems in manipulating scoped IPv6 addresses.

• :const:`AF_NETLINK` sockets are represented as pairs (pid, groups).

• Linux-only support for TIPC is available using the :const:`AF_TIPC` address family. TIPC is an open, non-IP based networked protocol designed for use in clustered computer environments. Addresses are represented by a tuple, and the fields depend on the address type. The general tuple form is (addr_type, v1, v2, v3 [, scope]), where:

  • addr_type is one of :const:`TIPC_ADDR_NAMESEQ`, :const:`TIPC_ADDR_NAME`, or :const:`TIPC_ADDR_ID`.

  • scope is one of :const:`TIPC_ZONE_SCOPE`, :const:`TIPC_CLUSTER_SCOPE`, and :const:`TIPC_NODE_SCOPE`.

  • If addr_type is :const:`TIPC_ADDR_NAME`, then v1 is the server type, v2 is the port identifier, and v3 should be 0.

    If addr_type is :const:`TIPC_ADDR_NAMESEQ`, then v1 is the server type, v2 is the lower port number, and v3 is the upper port number.

    If addr_type is :const:`TIPC_ADDR_ID`, then v1 is the node, v2 is the reference, and v3 should be set to 0.

    If addr_type is :const:`TIPC_ADDR_ID`, then v1 is the node, v2 is the reference, and v3 should be set to 0.

• A tuple (interface, ) is used for the :const:`AF_CAN` address family, where interface is a string representing a network interface name like 'can0'. The network interface name '' can be used to receive packets from all network interfaces of this family.

• A string or a tuple (id, unit) is used for the :const:`SYSPROTO_CONTROL` protocol of the :const:`PF_SYSTEM` family. The string is the name of a kernel control using a dynamically-assigned ID. The tuple can be used if ID and unit number of the kernel control are known or if a registered ID is used.

• Certain other address families (:const:`AF_BLUETOOTH`, :const:`AF_PACKET`, :const:`AF_CAN`) support specific representations.

For IPv4 addresses, two special forms are accepted instead of a host address: the empty string represents :const:`INADDR_ANY`, and the string '<broadcast>' represents :const:`INADDR_BROADCAST`. This behavior is not compatible with IPv6, therefore, you may want to avoid these if you intend to support IPv6 with your Python programs.

If you use a hostname in the host portion of IPv4/v6 socket address, the program may show a nondeterministic behavior, as Python uses the first address returned from the DNS resolution. The socket address will be resolved differently into an actual IPv4/v6 address, depending on the results from DNS resolution and/or the host configuration. For deterministic behavior use a numeric address in host portion.

All errors raise exceptions. The normal exceptions for invalid argument types and out-of-memory conditions can be raised; starting from Python 3.3, errors related to socket or address semantics raise :exc:`OSError` or one of its subclasses (they used to raise :exc:`socket.error`).

Non-blocking mode is supported through :meth:`~socket.setblocking`. A generalization of this based on timeouts is supported through :meth:`~socket.settimeout`.

Module contents

The module :mod:`socket` exports the following elements.

Exceptions

Constants

Functions

Creating sockets

The following functions all create :ref:`socket objects <socket-objects>`.

Other functions

The :mod:`socket` module also offers various network-related services:

Socket Objects

Socket objects have the following methods. Except for :meth:`~socket.makefile`, these correspond to Unix system calls applicable to sockets.

Note that there are no methods :meth:`read` or :meth:`write`; use :meth:`~socket.recv` and :meth:`~socket.send` without flags argument instead.

Socket objects also have these (read-only) attributes that correspond to the values given to the :class:`socket` constructor.

Notes on socket timeouts

A socket object can be in one of three modes: blocking, non-blocking, or timeout. Sockets are by default always created in blocking mode, but this can be changed by calling :func:`setdefaulttimeout`.

• In blocking mode, operations block until complete or the system returns an error (such as connection timed out).
• In non-blocking mode, operations fail (with an error that is unfortunately system-dependent) if they cannot be completed immediately: functions from the :mod:`select` can be used to know when and whether a socket is available for reading or writing.
• In timeout mode, operations fail if they cannot be completed within the timeout specified for the socket (they raise a :exc:`timeout` exception) or if the system returns an error.

Timeouts and the connect method

The :meth:`~socket.connect` operation is also subject to the timeout setting, and in general it is recommended to call :meth:`~socket.settimeout` before calling :meth:`~socket.connect` or pass a timeout parameter to :meth:`create_connection`. However, the system network stack may also return a connection timeout error of its own regardless of any Python socket timeout setting.

Timeouts and the accept method

If :func:`getdefaulttimeout` is not :const:`None`, sockets returned by the :meth:`~socket.accept` method inherit that timeout. Otherwise, the behaviour depends on settings of the listening socket:

• if the listening socket is in blocking mode or in timeout mode, the socket returned by :meth:`~socket.accept` is in blocking mode;
• if the listening socket is in non-blocking mode, whether the socket returned by :meth:`~socket.accept` is in blocking or non-blocking mode is operating system-dependent. If you want to ensure cross-platform behaviour, it is recommended you manually override this setting.

Example

Here are four minimal example programs using the TCP/IP protocol: a server that echoes all data that it receives back (servicing only one client), and a client using it. Note that a server must perform the sequence :func:`.socket`, :meth:`~socket.bind`, :meth:`~socket.listen`, :meth:`~socket.accept` (possibly repeating the :meth:`~socket.accept` to service more than one client), while a client only needs the sequence :func:`.socket`, :meth:`~socket.connect`. Also note that the server does not :meth:`~socket.sendall`/:meth:`~socket.recv` on the socket it is listening on but on the new socket returned by :meth:`~socket.accept`.

The first two examples support IPv4 only.

# Echo server program
import socket

HOST = ''                 # Symbolic name meaning all available interfaces
PORT = 50007              # Arbitrary non-privileged port
s = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
s.bind((HOST, PORT))
s.listen(1)
conn, addr = s.accept()
print('Connected by', addr)
while True:
    data = conn.recv(1024)
    if not data: break
    conn.sendall(data)
conn.close()

# Echo client program
import socket

HOST = 'daring.cwi.nl'    # The remote host
PORT = 50007              # The same port as used by the server
s = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
s.connect((HOST, PORT))
s.sendall(b'Hello, world')
data = s.recv(1024)
s.close()
print('Received', repr(data))

The next two examples are identical to the above two, but support both IPv4 and IPv6. The server side will listen to the first address family available (it should listen to both instead). On most of IPv6-ready systems, IPv6 will take precedence and the server may not accept IPv4 traffic. The client side will try to connect to the all addresses returned as a result of the name resolution, and sends traffic to the first one connected successfully.

# Echo server program
import socket
import sys

HOST = None               # Symbolic name meaning all available interfaces
PORT = 50007              # Arbitrary non-privileged port
s = None
for res in socket.getaddrinfo(HOST, PORT, socket.AF_UNSPEC,
                              socket.SOCK_STREAM, 0, socket.AI_PASSIVE):
    af, socktype, proto, canonname, sa = res
    try:
        s = socket.socket(af, socktype, proto)
    except OSError as msg:
        s = None
        continue
    try:
        s.bind(sa)
        s.listen(1)
    except OSError as msg:
        s.close()
        s = None
        continue
    break
if s is None:
    print('could not open socket')
    sys.exit(1)
conn, addr = s.accept()
print('Connected by', addr)
while True:
    data = conn.recv(1024)
    if not data: break
    conn.send(data)
conn.close()

# Echo client program
import socket
import sys

HOST = 'daring.cwi.nl'    # The remote host
PORT = 50007              # The same port as used by the server
s = None
for res in socket.getaddrinfo(HOST, PORT, socket.AF_UNSPEC, socket.SOCK_STREAM):
    af, socktype, proto, canonname, sa = res
    try:
        s = socket.socket(af, socktype, proto)
    except OSError as msg:
        s = None
        continue
    try:
        s.connect(sa)
    except OSError as msg:
        s.close()
        s = None
        continue
    break
if s is None:
    print('could not open socket')
    sys.exit(1)
s.sendall(b'Hello, world')
data = s.recv(1024)
s.close()
print('Received', repr(data))

The next example shows how to write a very simple network sniffer with raw sockets on Windows. The example requires administrator privileges to modify the interface:

import socket

# the public network interface
HOST = socket.gethostbyname(socket.gethostname())

# create a raw socket and bind it to the public interface
s = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_RAW, socket.IPPROTO_IP)
s.bind((HOST, 0))

# Include IP headers
s.setsockopt(socket.IPPROTO_IP, socket.IP_HDRINCL, 1)

# receive all packages
s.ioctl(socket.SIO_RCVALL, socket.RCVALL_ON)

# receive a package
print(s.recvfrom(65565))

# disabled promiscuous mode
s.ioctl(socket.SIO_RCVALL, socket.RCVALL_OFF)

The last example shows how to use the socket interface to communicate to a CAN network using the raw socket protocol. To use CAN with the broadcast manager protocol instead, open a socket with:

socket.socket(socket.AF_CAN, socket.SOCK_DGRAM, socket.CAN_BCM)

After binding (:const:`CAN_RAW`) or connecting (:const:`CAN_BCM`) the socket, you can use the :meth:`socket.send`, and the :meth:`socket.recv` operations (and their counterparts) on the socket object as usual.

This example might require special privileges:

import socket
import struct


# CAN frame packing/unpacking (see 'struct can_frame' in <linux/can.h>)

can_frame_fmt = "=IB3x8s"
can_frame_size = struct.calcsize(can_frame_fmt)

def build_can_frame(can_id, data):
    can_dlc = len(data)
    data = data.ljust(8, b'\x00')
    return struct.pack(can_frame_fmt, can_id, can_dlc, data)

def dissect_can_frame(frame):
    can_id, can_dlc, data = struct.unpack(can_frame_fmt, frame)
    return (can_id, can_dlc, data[:can_dlc])


# create a raw socket and bind it to the 'vcan0' interface
s = socket.socket(socket.AF_CAN, socket.SOCK_RAW, socket.CAN_RAW)
s.bind(('vcan0',))

while True:
    cf, addr = s.recvfrom(can_frame_size)

    print('Received: can_id=%x, can_dlc=%x, data=%s' % dissect_can_frame(cf))

    try:
        s.send(cf)
    except OSError:
        print('Error sending CAN frame')

    try:
        s.send(build_can_frame(0x01, b'\x01\x02\x03'))
    except OSError:
        print('Error sending CAN frame')

Running an example several times with too small delay between executions, could lead to this error:

OSError: [Errno 98] Address already in use

This is because the previous execution has left the socket in a TIME_WAIT state, and can't be immediately reused.

There is a :mod:`socket` flag to set, in order to prevent this, :data:`socket.SO_REUSEADDR`:

s = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
s.setsockopt(socket.SOL_SOCKET, socket.SO_REUSEADDR, 1)
s.bind((HOST, PORT))

the :data:`SO_REUSEADDR` flag tells the kernel to reuse a local socket in TIME_WAIT state, without waiting for its natural timeout to expire.