Editing Berkeley sockets (section)

{{Short description|Inter-process communication API}}

A '''Berkeley ([[Berkeley Software Distribution|BSD]]) socket''' is an [[application programming interface]] (API) for [[Internet domain socket]]s and [[Unix domain socket]]s, used for [[inter-process communication]] (IPC). It is commonly implemented as a [[library (computing)|library]] of linkable modules. It originated with the [[History of the Berkeley Software Distribution#4.2BSD|4.2BSD Unix]] operating system, which was released in 1983.

A [[Network socket|socket]] is an abstract representation ([[Handle (computing)|handle]]) for the local endpoint of a network communication path. The Berkeley sockets API represents it as a [[file descriptor]] in the [[Unix philosophy]] that provides a common interface for input and output to [[Standard streams|streams]] of data.

Berkeley sockets evolved with little modification from a [[De facto standard|''de facto'' standard]] into a component of the [[POSIX]] specification. The term '''POSIX sockets''' is essentially synonymous with ''Berkeley sockets'', but they are also known as '''BSD sockets''', acknowledging the first implementation in the [[Berkeley Software Distribution]].