inet(3)

NAME
inet - Access to Network protocols.

DESCRIPTION

This module, together with gen_tcp, gen_udp and gen_sctp provides access to the Network protocols TCP, SCTP and UDP over IP, as well as stream and datagram protocols over the local (unix) address domain / protocol domain.

See also ERTS User's Guide: Inet Configuration or more information about how to configure an Erlang runtime system for IP communication.

The following four Kernel configuration parameters affect the behavior of all gen_tcp, gen_udp and gen_sctp sockets opened on an Erlang node:

    • inet_default_connect_options can contain a list of default options used for all sockets created by a gen_tcp:connect/2,3,4](gen_tcp:connect/2) call.

    • inet_default_listen_options can contain a list of default options used for sockets created by a gen_tcp:listen/2 call.

    • inet_default_udp_options can contain a list of default options used for all sockets created by a gen_udp:open/1,2](gen_udp:open/2) call.

    • inet_default_sctp_options can contain a list of default options used for all sockets created by a gen_sctp:open/0,1](gen_sctp:open/1) call.

For the gen_tcp:accept/1,2 call, the values of the listening socket options are inherited. Therefore there is no corresponding application variable for accept.

Using the Kernel configuration parameters above, one can set default options for all TCP sockets on a node, but use this with care. Options such as {delay_send,true} can be specified in this way. The following is an example of starting an Erlang node with all sockets using delayed send:

    $ erl -sname test -kernel \
    inet_default_connect_options '[{delay_send,true}]' \
    inet_default_listen_options '[{delay_send,true}]'

Please note that the default option {active, true} cannot be changed, for internal implementation reasons.

Addresses as inputs to functions can be either a string or a tuple. For example, the IP address 150.236.20.73 can be passed to gethostbyaddr/1, either as a string "150.236.20.73" or as a tuple {150, 236, 20, 73}.

IPv4 address examples:

    Address          ip_address()
    -------          ------------
    127.0.0.1        {127,0,0,1}
    192.168.42.2     {192,168,42,2}

IPv6 address examples:

    Address          ip_address()
    -------          ------------
    ::1             {0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1}
    ::192.168.42.2  {0,0,0,0,0,0,(192 bsl 8) bor 168,(42 bsl 8) bor 2}
    ::FFFF:192.168.42.2
                    {0,0,0,0,0,16#FFFF,(192 bsl 8) bor 168,(42 bsl 8) bor 2}
    3ffe:b80:1f8d:2:204:acff:fe17:bf38
                    {16#3ffe,16#b80,16#1f8d,16#2,16#204,16#acff,16#fe17,16#bf38}
    fe80::204:acff:fe17:bf38
                    {16#fe80,0,0,0,16#204,16#acff,16#fe17,16#bf38}

Function parse_address/1 can be useful:

    1> inet:parse_address("192.168.42.2").
    {ok,{192,168,42,2}}
    2> inet:parse_address("::FFFF:192.168.42.2").
    {ok,{0,0,0,0,0,65535,49320,10754}}

  POSIX Error Codes
e2big
    Too long argument list
eacces
    Permission denied
eaddrinuse
    Address already in use
eaddrnotavail
    Cannot assign requested address
eadv
    Advertise error
eafnosupport
    Address family not supported by protocol family
eagain
    Resource temporarily unavailable
ealign
    EALIGN
ealready
    Operation already in progress
ebade
    Bad exchange descriptor
ebadf
    Bad file number
ebadfd
    File descriptor in bad state
ebadmsg
    Not a data message
ebadr
    Bad request descriptor
ebadrpc
    Bad RPC structure
ebadrqc
    Bad request code
ebadslt
    Invalid slot
ebfont
    Bad font file format
ebusy
    File busy
echild
    No children
echrng
    Channel number out of range
ecomm
    Communication error on send
econnaborted
    Software caused connection abort
econnrefused
    Connection refused
econnreset
    Connection reset by peer
edeadlk
    Resource deadlock avoided
edeadlock
    Resource deadlock avoided
edestaddrreq
    Destination address required
edirty
    Mounting a dirty fs without force
edom
    Math argument out of range
edotdot
    Cross mount point
edquot
    Disk quota exceeded
eduppkg
    Duplicate package name
eexist
    File already exists
efault
    Bad address in system call argument
efbig
    File too large
ehostdown
    Host is down
ehostunreach
    Host is unreachable
eidrm
    Identifier removed
einit
    Initialization error
einprogress
    Operation now in progress
eintr
    Interrupted system call
einval
    Invalid argument
eio
    I/O error
eisconn
    Socket is already connected
eisdir
    Illegal operation on a directory
eisnam
    Is a named file
el2hlt
    Level 2 halted
el2nsync
    Level 2 not synchronized
el3hlt
    Level 3 halted
el3rst
    Level 3 reset
elbin
    ELBIN
elibacc
    Cannot access a needed shared library
elibbad
    Accessing a corrupted shared library
elibexec
    Cannot exec a shared library directly
elibmax
    Attempting to link in more shared libraries than system limit
elibscn
    .lib section in a.out corrupted
elnrng
    Link number out of range
eloop
    Too many levels of symbolic links
emfile
    Too many open files
emlink
    Too many links
emsgsize
    Message too long
emultihop
    Multihop attempted
enametoolong
    Filename too long
enavail
    Unavailable
enet
    ENET
enetdown
    Network is down
enetreset
    Network dropped connection on reset
enetunreach
    Network is unreachable
enfile
    File table overflow
enoano
    Anode table overflow
enobufs
    No buffer space available
enocsi
    No CSI structure available
enodata
    No data available
enodev
    No such device
enoent
    No such file or directory
enoexec
    Exec format error
enolck
    No locks available
enolink
    Link has been severed
enomem
    Not enough memory
enomsg
    No message of desired type
enonet
    Machine is not on the network
enopkg
    Package not installed
enoprotoopt
    Bad protocol option
enospc
    No space left on device
enosr
    Out of stream resources or not a stream device
enosym
    Unresolved symbol name
enosys
    Function not implemented
enotblk
    Block device required
enotconn
    Socket is not connected
enotdir
    Not a directory
enotempty
    Directory not empty
enotnam
    Not a named file
enotsock
    Socket operation on non-socket
enotsup
    Operation not supported
enotty
    Inappropriate device for ioctl
enotuniq
    Name not unique on network
enxio
    No such device or address
eopnotsupp
    Operation not supported on socket
eperm
    Not owner
epfnosupport
    Protocol family not supported
epipe
    Broken pipe
eproclim
    Too many processes
eprocunavail
    Bad procedure for program
eprogmismatch
    Wrong program version
eprogunavail
    RPC program unavailable
eproto
    Protocol error
eprotonosupport
    Protocol not supported
eprototype
    Wrong protocol type for socket
erange
    Math result unrepresentable
erefused
    EREFUSED
eremchg
    Remote address changed
eremdev
    Remote device
eremote
    Pathname hit remote filesystem
eremoteio
    Remote I/O error
eremoterelease
    EREMOTERELEASE
erofs
    Read-only filesystem
erpcmismatch
    Wrong RPC version
erremote
    Object is remote
eshutdown
    Cannot send after socket shutdown
esocktnosupport
    Socket type not supported
espipe
    Invalid seek
esrch
    No such process
esrmnt
    Srmount error
estale
    Stale remote file handle
esuccess
    Error 0
etime
    Timer expired
etimedout
    Connection timed out
etoomanyrefs
    Too many references
etxtbsy
    Text file or pseudo-device busy
euclean
    Structure needs cleaning
eunatch
    Protocol driver not attached
eusers
    Too many users
eversion
    Version mismatch
ewouldblock
    Operation would block
exdev
    Cross-device link
exfull
    Message tables full
nxdomain
    Hostname or domain name cannot be found

DATA TYPES

address_family() :: inet | inet6 | local.
ancillary_data() :: [{tos, byte()} | {tclass, byte()} | {ttl, byte()}].

    Ancillary data / control messages.

    Ancillary data received with a data packet, read with the socket option pktoptions from a TCP socket, or to set in a call to gen_udp:send/4 or gen_udp:send/5.

    The value(s) correspond to the currently active socket options recvtos, recvtclass and recvttl, or for a single send operation the option(s) to override the currently active socket option(s).
ether_address() :: [0..255].
family_address() :: inet_address() | inet6_address() | local_address().

    A general network address.

    A general network address format of the form {Family, Destination} where Family is an atom such as local and the format of Destination depends on Family. Destination is a complete address (for example an IP address with port number).
getifaddrs_ifopts() :: [Ifopt :: {flags, Flags :: [up | broadcast | loopback | pointtopoint | running | multicast]} | {addr, Addr :: ip_address()} | {netmask, Netmask :: ip_address()} | {broadaddr, Broadaddr :: ip_address()} | {dstaddr, Dstaddr :: ip_address()} | {hwaddr, Hwaddr :: [byte()]}].

    Interface address description list.

    A list returned from getifaddrs/0,1 for a named interface, translated from the returned data of the POSIX API function getaddrinfo().

    Hwaddr is hardware dependent, for example, on Ethernet interfaces it is the 6-byte Ethernet address (MAC address (EUI-48 address)).

    The tuples {addr,Addr}, {netmask,Netmask}, and possibly {broadaddr,Broadaddr} or {dstaddr,Dstaddr} are repeated in the list if the interface has got multiple addresses. An interface may have multiple {flag,_} tuples for example if it has different flags for different address families.

    Multiple {hwaddr,Hwaddr} tuples is hard to say anything definite about, though. The tuple {flag,Flags} is mandatory, all others are optional.

    Do not rely too much on the order of Flags atoms or the Ifopt tuples. There are however some rules:

        • {flag,_} tuple applies to all other tuples that follow.

        • Immediately after {addr,_} follows {netmask,_}.

        • Immediately thereafter may {broadaddr,_} follow if broadcast is member of Flags, or {dstaddr,_} if pointtopoint is member of Flags. Both {dstaddr,_} and {broadaddr,_} doesn't occur for the same {addr,_}.

        • Any {netmask,_}, {broadaddr,_}, or {dstaddr,_} tuples that follow an {addr,Addr} tuple concerns the address Addr.

    The tuple {hwaddr,_} is not returned on Solaris, as the hardware address historically belongs to the link layer and it is not returned by the Solaris API function getaddrinfo().

    WARNING: On Windows, the data is fetched from different OS API functions, so the Netmask and Broadaddr values may be calculated, just as some Flags values.
hostent() :: #hostent{}.

    A record describing a host; name and address.

    Corresponds to the C: struct hostent as returned by for example gethostbyname(3).

    The record is defined in the Kernel include file "inet.hrl".

    Add the following directive to the module:

        -include_lib("kernel/include/inet.hrl").
hostname() :: atom() | string().
i_option() :: port | module | recv | sent | owner | local_address | {local_address, ShowPorts :: boolean()} | foreign_address | {foreign_address, ShowPorts :: boolean()} | state | type.

    Options for selecting statistics items.

    Regarding ShowPorts, see show_ports as described in the i/2 function, defaults to false.
inet6_address() :: {inet6, {ip6_address() | any | loopback, port_number()}}.

    A network address for the inet6 family (AF_INET6, IPv6)

    WARNING: This address format is currently experimental and for completeness to make all address families have a {Family, Destination} representation.
inet_address() :: {inet, {ip4_address() | any | loopback, port_number()}}.

    A network address for the inet family (AF_INET, IPv4)

    WARNING: This address format is currently experimental and for completeness to make all address families have a {Family, Destination} representation.
inet_backend() :: {inet_backend, inet | socket}.

    Implementation backend selector for socket/0.

    Selects the implementation backend for sockets. The current default is inet which uses inet_drv.c to call the platform's socket API. The value socket instead uses the socket module and its NIF implementation.

    This is a temporary option that will be ignored in a future release.
ip4_address() :: {0..255, 0..255, 0..255, 0..255}.
ip6_address() :: {0..65535, 0..65535, 0..65535, 0..65535, 0..65535, 0..65535, 0..65535, 0..65535}.
ip_address() :: ip4_address() | ip6_address().
local_address() :: {local, File :: binary() | string()}.

    A network address for the local family (AF_LOCAL | AF_UNIX)

    This address family, also known as "Unix domain sockets" only works on Unix-like systems.

    File is normally a file pathname in a local filesystem. It is limited in length by the operating system, traditionally to 108 bytes.

    A binary/0 is passed as is to the operating system, but a string/0 is encoded according to the system filename encoding mode.

    Other addresses are possible, for example Linux implements "Abstract Addresses". See the documentation for Unix Domain Sockets on your system, normally unix in manual section 7.

    In most API functions where you can use this address family the port number must be 0.
module_socket() :: {'$inet', Handler :: module(), Handle :: term()}.
port_number() :: 0..65535.
posix() :: eaddrinuse | eaddrnotavail | eafnosupport | ealready | econnaborted | econnrefused | econnreset | edestaddrreq | ehostdown | ehostunreach | einprogress | eisconn | emsgsize | enetdown | enetunreach | enopkg | enoprotoopt | enotconn | enotty | enotsock | eproto | eprotonosupport | eprototype | esocktnosupport | etimedout | ewouldblock | exbadport | exbadseq | file:posix().

    POSIX Error Code atom/0.

    An atom that is named from the POSIX error codes used in Unix, and in the runtime libraries of most C compilers. See section POSIX Error Codes.
returned_non_ip_address() :: {local, binary()} | {unspec, <<>>} | {undefined, any()}.

    a non-IP network address.

    Addresses besides ip_address/0 ones that are returned from socket API functions. See in particular local_address/0. The unspec family corresponds to AF_UNSPEC and can occur if the other side has no socket address. The undefined family can only occur in the unlikely event of an address family that the VM doesn't recognize.
socket() :: port() | module_socket().

    A socket recognized by this module and its siblings.

    See gen_tcp:socket/0 and gen_udp:socket/0.
socket_address() :: ip_address() | any | loopback | local_address().
socket_getopt() :: gen_sctp:option_name() | gen_tcp:option_name() | gen_udp:option_name().
socket_optval() :: gen_sctp:option_value() | gen_tcp:option() | gen_udp:option() | gen_tcp:pktoptions_value().
socket_protocol() :: tcp | udp | sctp.
socket_setopt() :: gen_sctp:option() | gen_tcp:option() | gen_udp:option().
stat_option() :: recv_cnt | recv_max | recv_avg | recv_oct | recv_dvi | send_cnt | send_max | send_avg | send_oct | send_pend.

FUNCTIONS

cancel_monitor(MRef) -> boolean() when MRef :: reference().

    Cancel a socket monitor.

    If MRef is a reference that the calling process obtained by calling monitor/1, this monitor is removed. If the monitoring is already removed, nothing happens.

    The returned value is one of the following: true
        The monitor was found and removed. In this case, no 'DOWN' message corresponding to this monitor has been delivered and will not be delivered.
    false
        The monitor was not found and couldn't be removed. Probably because the monitor has already triggered and there is a corresponding 'DOWN' message in the caller message queue.
close(Socket) -> ok when Socket :: socket().

    Close a socket of any type.
format_error(Reason) -> string() when Reason :: posix() | system_limit.

    Format an error code into a string/0.

    Returns a diagnostic error string. For possible POSIX values and corresponding strings, see section POSIX Error Codes.
get_rc() -> [{Par :: atom(), Val :: any()} | {Par :: atom(), Val1 :: any(), Val2 :: any()}].

    Get the inet configuration.

    Returns the state of the inet configuration database in form of a list of recorded configuration parameters. For more information, see ERTS User's Guide: Inet Configuration.

    Only actual parameters with other than default values are returned, for example not directives that specify other sources for configuration parameters nor directives that clear parameters.
getaddr(Host, Family) -> {ok, Address} | {error, posix()} when Host :: ip_address() | hostname(), Family :: address_family(), Address :: ip_address().

    Resolve a host to an address, in a specific addresss family.

    Returns the IP address for Host as a tuple of integers. Host can be an IP address, a single hostname/0, or a fully qualified hostname/0.
getaddrs(Host, Family) -> {ok, Addresses} | {error, posix()} when Host :: ip_address() | hostname(), Family :: address_family(), Addresses :: [ip_address()].

    Resolve a host to a list of addresses, in a specific address family.

    Returns a list of all IP addresses for Host. Host can be an IP address, a single hostname/0, or a fully qualified hostname/0.
gethostbyaddr(Address) -> {ok, Hostent} | {error, posix()} when Address :: string() | ip_address(), Hostent :: hostent().

    Resolve (reverse) an address to a #hostent{} record.

    Returns a #hostent{} record for the host with the specified address.
gethostbyname(Hostname) -> {ok, Hostent} | {error, posix()} when Hostname :: hostname(), Hostent :: hostent().

    Resolve a hostname to a #hostent{} record.

    Returns a #hostent{} record for the host with the specified Hostname.

    This function uses the resolver, which is often the native (OS) resolver.

    If resolver option inet6 is true, an IPv6 address is looked up.

    See ERTS User's Guide: Inet Configuration for information about the resolver configuration.

    A quirk of many resolvers is that an integer string is interpreted as an IP address. For instance, the integer string "3232235521" and the string "192.168.0.1" are both translated to the IP address {192,168,0,1}.
gethostbyname(Hostname, Family) -> {ok, Hostent} | {error, posix()} when Hostname :: hostname(), Family :: address_family(), Hostent :: hostent().

    Resolve a hostname to a #hostent{} record, in a specific address family.

    Returns a #hostent{} record for the host with the specified Hostname, restricted to the specified address Family.

    See also gethostbyname/1.
gethostname() -> {ok, Hostname} when Hostname :: string().

    Get the local hostname.

    Returns the local hostname. Never fails.
getifaddrs() -> {ok, [{Ifname :: string(), Ifopts :: getifaddrs_ifopts()}]} | {error, posix()}.

    Get interface names and addresses.

    Returns a list of 2-tuples containing interface names and the interfaces' addresses. Ifname is a Unicode string and Ifopts is a list of interface address description tuples.

    The interface address description tuples are documented under the type of the Ifopts value.
getifaddrs([Option :: inet_backend() | {netns, Namespace :: file:filename_all()}] | socket()) -> {ok, [{Ifname :: string(), Ifopts :: getifaddrs_ifopts()}]} | {error, posix()}.

    Get interface names and addresses, in a specific namespace.

    Equivalent to getifaddrs/0, but accepts an Option {netns, Namespace} that, on platforms that support the feature (Linux), sets a network namespace for the OS call. Also, If the option 'inet_backend' is first in the options list, the specified backend will be used (for 'inet', inet and for 'socket' the equivalent net functions will be used).

    See the socket option {netns, Namespace} under setopts/2.
getopts(Socket, Options) -> {ok, OptionValues} | {error, posix()} when Socket :: socket(), Options :: [socket_getopt()], OptionValues :: [socket_optval()].

    Get one or more options for a socket.

    Gets all options in the list Options from Socket. See setopts/2 for a list of available options. See also the descriptions of protocol specific types referenced by socket_optval() .

    The number of elements in the returned OptionValues list does not necessarily correspond to the number of options asked for. If the operating system fails to support an option, it is left out in the returned list. An error tuple is returned only when getting options for the socket is impossible (that is, the socket is closed or the buffer size in a raw request is too large). This behavior is kept for backward compatibility reasons.

    A raw option request RawOptReq = {raw, Protocol, OptionNum, ValueSpec} can be used to get information about socket options not (explicitly) supported by the emulator. The use of raw socket options makes the code non-portable, but allows the Erlang programmer to take advantage of unusual features present on a particular platform.

    RawOptReq consists of tag raw followed by the protocol level, the option number, and either a binary or the size, in bytes, of the buffer in which the option value is to be stored. A binary is to be used when the underlying getsockopt requires input in the argument field. In this case, the binary size shall correspond to the required buffer size of the return value. The supplied values in a RawOptReq correspond to the second, third, and fourth/fifth parameters to the getsockopt call in the C socket API. The value stored in the buffer is returned as a binary ValueBin, where all values are coded in native endianness.

    Asking for and inspecting raw socket options require low-level information about the current operating system and TCP stack.

    Example:

    Consider a Linux machine where option TCP_INFO can be used to collect TCP statistics for a socket. Assume you are interested in field tcpi_sacked of struct tcp_info filled in when asking for TCP_INFO. To be able to access this information, you need to know the following:

        • The numeric value of protocol level IPPROTO_TCP

        • The numeric value of option TCP_INFO

        • The size of struct tcp_info

        • The size and offset of the specific field

    By inspecting the headers or writing a small C program, it is found that IPPROTO_TCP is 6, TCP_INFO is 11, the structure size is 92 (bytes), the offset of tcpi_sacked is 28 bytes, and the value is a 32-bit integer. The following code can be used to retrieve the value:

        get_tcpi_sacked(Sock) ->
            {ok,[{raw,_,_,Info}]} = inet:getopts(Sock,[{raw,6,11,92}]),
            <<_:28/binary,TcpiSacked:32/native,_/binary>> = Info,
            TcpiSacked.

    Preferably, you would check the machine type, the operating system, and the Kernel version before executing anything similar to this code.
getstat(Socket, Options) -> {ok, OptionValues} | {error, posix()} when Socket :: socket(), Options :: [stat_option()], OptionValues :: [{stat_option(), integer()}].

    Get one or more statistics options for a socket.

    getstat(Socket) is equivalent to getstat(Socket, [recv_avg, recv_cnt, recv_dvi, recv_max, recv_oct, send_avg, send_cnt, send_pend, send_max, send_oct]).

    The following options are available: recv_avg
        Average size of packets, in bytes, received by the socket.
    recv_cnt
        Number of packets received by the socket.
    recv_dvi
        Average packet size deviation, in bytes, received by the socket.
    recv_max
        Size of the largest packet, in bytes, received by the socket.
    recv_oct
        Number of bytes received by the socket.
    send_avg
        Average size of packets, in bytes, sent from the socket.
    send_cnt
        Number of packets sent from the socket.
    send_pend
        Number of bytes waiting to be sent by the socket.
    send_max
        Size of the largest packet, in bytes, sent from the socket.
    send_oct
        Number of bytes sent from the socket.
i() -> ok.

    Equivalent to i/1 for the protocols tcp, udp, and sctp
i(show_ports | socket_protocol() | [i_option()]) -> ok.

    List network sockets.

    With argument Proto equivalent to i(Proto, Options) where Options is a list of all atom/0s in i_option/0.

    With argument Options, equivalent to i(Proto, Options) for Proto: tcp, udp, and sctp.

    With argument show_ports (since OTP 27.0) equivalent to i(Proto, Options) where Option is a list of all options in t:i_option/0 with ShowPorts = true.
i(socket_protocol(), show_ports | (Options :: [i_option()])) -> ok.

    List network sockets.

    Lists all TCP, UDP and SCTP sockets on the terminal, those created by the Erlang runtime system as well as by the application.

    The following options are available: port
        An internal index of the port.
    module
        The callback module of the socket.
    recv
        Number of bytes received by the socket.
    sent
        Number of bytes sent from the socket.
    owner
        The socket owner process.
    local_address
        The local address of the socket.
    foreign_address
        The address and port of the other end of the connection.
    state
        The connection state.
    type
        STREAM or DGRAM or SEQPACKET.

    The Options argument may also be (since OTP 27.0): show_ports
        Do not translate the port numbers (of 'local_address' and 'foreign_address') to service name(s).
info(Socket) -> Info when Socket :: socket(), Info :: term().

    Get information about a socket.

    Returns a term containing miscellaneous information about a socket.
ipv4_mapped_ipv6_address(ip_address()) -> ip_address().

    Convert between an IPv4 address and an IPv4-mapped IPv6 address.

    Convert an IPv4 address to an IPv4-mapped IPv6 address or the reverse. When converting from an IPv6 address all but the 2 low words are ignored so this function also works on some other types of IPv6 addresses than IPv4-mapped.
is_ip_address(IPAddress) -> boolean() when IPAddress :: ip_address() | term().

    Test for an IP address.

    Tests if the argument IPAddress is an ip_address/0 and if so returns true, otherwise false.
is_ipv4_address(IPv4Address) -> boolean() when IPv4Address :: ip4_address() | term().

    Test for an IPv4 address.

    Tests if the argument IPv4Address is an ip4_address/0 and if so returns true, otherwise false.
is_ipv6_address(IPv6Address) -> boolean() when IPv6Address :: ip6_address() | term().

    Test for an IPv6 address.

    Tests if the argument IPv6Address is an ip6_address/0 and if so returns true, otherwise false.
monitor(Socket) -> reference() when Socket :: socket().

    Start a socket monitor.

    If the Socket to monitor doesn't exist or when the monitor is triggered, a 'DOWN' message is sent that has the following pattern:

        	    {'DOWN', MonitorRef, Type, Object, Info}
        MonitorRef
        The return value from this function.
    Type
        The type of socket, can be one of the following atom/0s: port or socket.
    Object
        The monitored entity, the socket, which triggered the event.
    Info
        Either the termination reason of the socket or nosock (the Socket did not exist when this function was called).

    Making several calls to inet:monitor/1 for the same Socket is not an error; one monitor is created per call.

    The monitor is triggered when the socket is closed in any way such as an API call, remote end close, closed by signal when owner exits, ...
ntoa(IpAddress) -> Address | {error, einval} when Address :: string(), IpAddress :: ip_address().

    Parse an ip_address/0 to an IPv4 or IPv6 address string.
parse_address(Address) -> {ok, IPAddress} | {error, einval} when Address :: string(), IPAddress :: ip_address().

    Parse an IP address string to an ip_address/0.

    Returns an ip4_address/0 or an ip6_address/0 depending on which parsing that succeeds.

    Accepts a short form IPv4 address string like parse_ipv4_address/1.
parse_ipv4_address(Address) -> {ok, IPv4Address} | {error, einval} when Address :: string(), IPv4Address :: ip4_address().

    Parse (relaxed) an IPv4 address string to an ip4_address/0.

    Accepts a short form IPv4 address string (less than 4 fields) such as "127.1" or "0x7f000001".
parse_ipv4strict_address(Address) -> {ok, IPv4Address} | {error, einval} when Address :: string(), IPv4Address :: ip4_address().

    Parse an IPv4 address string to an ip4_address/0.

    Requires an IPv4 address string containing four fields, that is; not a short form address string.
parse_ipv6_address(Address) -> {ok, IPv6Address} | {error, einval} when Address :: string(), IPv6Address :: ip6_address().

    Parse (relaxed) an IPv6 address string to an ip6_address/0.

    Also accepts a (relaxed) IPv4 address string like parse_ipv4_address/1 and returns an IPv4-mapped IPv6 address.
parse_ipv6strict_address(Address) -> {ok, IPv6Address} | {error, einval} when Address :: string(), IPv6Address :: ip6_address().

    Parse an IPv6 address string to an ip6_address/0.

    Doesn't accept an IPv4 address string. An IPv6 address string, though, allows an IPv4 tail like this: "::127.0.0.1" (which is the same as "::7f00:0001").
parse_strict_address(Address) -> {ok, IPAddress} | {error, einval} when Address :: string(), IPAddress :: ip_address().

    Parse an IP address string to an ip_address/0.

    Like parse_address/1 but doesn't accept a short form IPv4 address string.
peername(Socket :: socket()) -> {ok, {ip_address(), port_number()} | returned_non_ip_address()} | {error, posix()}.

    Return the address of the socket's remote end.

    Returns the address and port for the other end of a connection.

    Notice that for SCTP sockets, this function returns only one of the peer addresses of the socket. Function peernames/1,2 returns all.
peernames(Socket :: socket()) -> {ok, [{ip_address(), port_number()} | returned_non_ip_address()]} | {error, posix()}.

    Equivalent to peernames(Socket, 0).

    Notice that the behavior of this function for an SCTP one-to-many style socket is not defined by the SCTP Sockets API Extensions.
peernames(Socket, Assoc) -> {ok, [{Address, Port}]} | {error, posix()} when Socket :: socket(), Assoc :: #sctp_assoc_change{} | gen_sctp:assoc_id(), Address :: ip_address(), Port :: non_neg_integer().

    Return the addresses of all remote ends of a socket.

    Returns a list of all address/port number pairs for the remote end of an association Assoc of a socket.

    This function can return multiple addresses for multihomed sockets, such as SCTP sockets. For other sockets it returns a one-element list.

    Notice that parameter Assoc is by the SCTP Sockets API Extensions defined to be ignored for one-to-one style sockets. What the special value 0 means, is unfortunately undefined, and hence the behavior for one-to-many style sockets.
port(Socket) -> {ok, Port} | {error, any()} when Socket :: socket(), Port :: port_number().

    Return the local port number for a socket.
setopts(Socket, Options) -> ok | {error, posix()} when Socket :: socket(), Options :: [socket_setopt()].

    Set one or more options for a socket.

    Sets the list of Options on Socket.

    The following options are available:

        • {active, true | false | once | N} - If the value is true, which is the default, everything received from the socket is sent as messages to the receiving process.

        If the value is false (passive mode), the process must explicitly receive incoming data by calling gen_tcp:recv/2,3, gen_udp:recv/2,3, or gen_sctp:recv/1,2 (depending on the type of socket).

        If the value is once ({active, once}), one data message from the socket is sent to the process. To receive one more message, setopts/2 must be called again with option {active, once}.

        If the value is an integer N in the range -32768 to 32767 (inclusive), the value is added to the socket's count of data messages sent to the controlling process. A socket's default message count is 0. If a negative value is specified, and its magnitude is equal to or greater than the socket's current message count, the socket's message count is set to 0. Once the socket's message count reaches 0, either because of sending received data messages to the process or by being explicitly set, the process is then notified by a special message, specific to the type of socket, that the socket has entered passive mode. Once the socket enters passive mode, to receive more messages setopts/2 must be called again to set the socket back into an active mode.

        When using {active, once} or {active, N}, the socket changes behavior automatically when data is received. This can be confusing in combination with connection-oriented sockets (that is, gen_tcp), as a socket with {active, false} behavior reports closing differently than a socket with {active, true} behavior. To simplify programming, a socket where the peer closed, and this is detected while in {active, false} mode, still generates message {tcp_closed, Socket} when set to {active, once}, {active, true}, or {active, N} mode. It is therefore safe to assume that message {tcp_closed, Socket}, possibly followed by socket port termination (depending on option exit_on_close) eventually appears when a socket changes back and forth between {active, true} and {active, false} mode. However, when peer closing is detected it is all up to the underlying TCP/IP stack and protocol.

        Notice that {active, true} mode provides no flow control; a fast sender can easily overflow the receiver with incoming messages. The same is true for {active, N} mode, while the message count is greater than zero.

        Use active mode only if your high-level protocol provides its own flow control (for example, acknowledging received messages) or the amount of data exchanged is small. Using {active, false} mode, {active, once} mode, or {active, N} mode with values of N appropriate for the application to provide flow control, ensures the other side cannot send faster than the receiver can read.

        • {broadcast, Boolean} (UDP sockets) - Enables/disables permission to send broadcasts.

        • {buffer, Size} - The size of the user-level buffer used by the driver. Not to be confused with options sndbuf and recbuf, which correspond to the Kernel socket buffers. For TCP it is recommended to have val(buffer) >= val(recbuf) to avoid performance issues because of unnecessary copying. For UDP the same recommendation applies, but the max should not be larger than the MTU of the network path. val(buffer) is automatically set to the above maximum when recbuf is set. However, as the size set for recbuf usually become larger, you are encouraged to use getopts/2 to analyze the behavior of your operating system.

        Note that this is also the maximum amount of data that can be received from a single recv call. If you are using higher than normal MTU consider setting buffer higher.
    {delay_send, Boolean}
        Normally, when an Erlang process sends to a socket, the driver tries to send the data immediately. If that fails, the driver uses any means available to queue up the message to be sent whenever the operating system says it can handle it. Setting {delay_send, true} makes all messages queue up. The messages sent to the network are then larger but fewer. The option affects the scheduling of send requests versus Erlang processes instead of changing any real property of the socket. The option is implementation-specific. Defaults to false.
    {deliver, port | term}
        When {active, true}, data is delivered on the form port : {S, {data, [H1,..Hsz | Data]}} or term : {tcp, S, [H1..Hsz | Data]}.
    {dontroute, Boolean}
        Enables/disables routing bypass for outgoing messages.
    {exit_on_close, Boolean}
        This option is set to true by default.

        The only reason to set it to false is if you want to continue sending data to the socket after a close is detected, for example, if the peer uses gen_tcp:shutdown/2 to shut down the write side.

        • {exclusiveaddruse, Boolean} - Enables/disables exclusive address/port usage on Windows. That is, by enabling this option you can prevent other sockets from binding to the same address/port. By default this option is disabled. That is, other sockets may use the same address/port by setting {reuseaddr, true} in combination with {reuseport, true} unless {exclusiveaddruse, true} has been set on Socket. On non-Windows systems this option is silently ignored.

        NOTE: This option is currently not supported for socket created with inet_backend = socket
    {header, Size}
        This option is only meaningful if option binary was specified when the socket was created. If option header is specified, the first Size number bytes of data received from the socket are elements of a list, and the remaining data is a binary specified as the tail of the same list. For example, if Size == 2, the data received matches [Byte1, Byte2 | Binary].
    {high_msgq_watermark, Size}
        The socket message queue is set to a busy state when the amount of data on the message queue reaches this limit. Notice that this limit only concerns data that has not yet reached the ERTS internal socket implementation. Defaults to 8 kB.

        Senders of data to the socket are suspended if either the socket message queue is busy or the socket itself is busy.

        For more information, see options low_msgq_watermark, high_watermark, and low_watermark.

        Notice that distribution sockets disable the use of high_msgq_watermark and low_msgq_watermark. Instead use the distribution buffer busy limit, which is a similar feature.
    {high_watermark, Size} (TCP/IP sockets)
        The socket is set to a busy state when the amount of data queued internally by the ERTS socket implementation reaches this limit. Defaults to 8 kB.

        Senders of data to the socket are suspended if either the socket message queue is busy or the socket itself is busy.

        For more information, see options low_watermark, high_msgq_watermark, and low_msqg_watermark.
    {ipv6_v6only, Boolean}
        Restricts the socket to use only IPv6, prohibiting any IPv4 connections. This is only applicable for IPv6 sockets (option inet6).

        On most platforms this option must be set on the socket before associating it to an address. It is therefore only reasonable to specify it when creating the socket and not to use it when calling function (setopts/2) containing this description.

        The behavior of a socket with this option set to true is the only portable one. The original idea when IPv6 was new of using IPv6 for all traffic is now not recommended by FreeBSD (you can use {ipv6_v6only,false} to override the recommended system default value), forbidden by OpenBSD (the supported GENERIC kernel), and impossible on Windows (which has separate IPv4 and IPv6 protocol stacks). Most Linux distros still have a system default value of false. This policy shift among operating systems to separate IPv6 from IPv4 traffic has evolved, as it gradually proved hard and complicated to get a dual stack implementation correct and secure.

        On some platforms, the only allowed value for this option is true, for example, OpenBSD and Windows. Trying to set this option to false, when creating the socket, fails in this case.

        Setting this option on platforms where it does not exist is ignored. Getting this option with getopts/2 returns no value, that is, the returned list does not contain an {ipv6_v6only,_} tuple. On Windows, the option does not exist, but it is emulated as a read-only option with value true.

        Therefore, setting this option to true when creating a socket never fails, except possibly on a platform where you have customized the kernel to only allow false, which can be doable (but awkward) on, for example, OpenBSD.

        If you read back the option value using getopts/2 and get no value, the option does not exist in the host operating system. The behavior of both an IPv6 and an IPv4 socket listening on the same port, and for an IPv6 socket getting IPv4 traffic is then no longer predictable.
    {keepalive, Boolean} (TCP/IP sockets)
        Enables/disables periodic transmission on a connected socket when no other data is exchanged. If the other end does not respond, the connection is considered broken and an error message is sent to the controlling process. Defaults to false.
    {keepcnt, Integer} (TCP/IP sockets)
        Linux specific TCP_KEEPCNT.
    {keepidle, Integer} (TCP/IP sockets)
        Linux specific TCP_KEEPIDLE.
    {keepintvl, Integer} (TCP/IP sockets)
        Linux specific TCP_KEEPINTVL.

        • {linger, {true|false, Seconds}} - Determines the time-out, in seconds, for flushing unsent data in the close/1 socket call.

        The first component is if linger is enabled, the second component is the flushing time-out, in seconds. There are 3 alternatives: {false, _}
            close/1 or shutdown/2 returns immediately, not waiting for data to be flushed, with closing happening in the background.
        {true, 0}
            Aborts the connection when it is closed. Discards any data still remaining in the send buffers and sends RST to the peer.

            This avoids TCP's TIME_WAIT state, but leaves open the possibility that another "incarnation" of this connection being created.
        {true, Time} when Time > 0
            close/1 or shutdown/2 will not return until all queued messages for the socket have been successfully sent or the linger timeout (Time) has been reached.
    {low_msgq_watermark, Size}
        If the socket message queue is in a busy state, the socket message queue is set in a not busy state when the amount of data queued in the message queue falls below this limit. Notice that this limit only concerns data that has not yet reached the ERTS internal socket implementation. Defaults to 4 kB.

        Senders that are suspended because of either a busy message queue or a busy socket are resumed when the socket message queue and the socket are not busy.

        For more information, see options high_msgq_watermark, high_watermark, and low_watermark.

        Notice that distribution sockets disable the use of high_msgq_watermark and low_msgq_watermark. Instead they use the distribution buffer busy limit, which is a similar feature.
    {low_watermark, Size} (TCP/IP sockets)
        If the socket is in a busy state, the socket is set in a not busy state when the amount of data queued internally by the ERTS socket implementation falls below this limit. Defaults to 4 kB.

        Senders that are suspended because of a busy message queue or a busy socket are resumed when the socket message queue and the socket are not busy.

        For more information, see options high_watermark, high_msgq_watermark, and low_msgq_watermark.
    {mode, Mode :: binary | list}
        Received Packet is delivered as defined by Mode.
    {netns, Namespace :: file:filename_all()}
        Sets a network namespace for the socket. Parameter Namespace is a filename defining the namespace, for example, "/var/run/netns/example", typically created by command ip netns add example. This option must be used in a function call that creates a socket, that is, gen_tcp:connect/3,4, gen_tcp:listen/2, gen_udp:open/1,2 or gen_sctp:open/0,1,2, and also getifaddrs/1.

        This option uses the Linux-specific syscall setns(), such as in Linux kernel 3.0 or later, and therefore only exists when the runtime system is compiled for such an operating system.

        The virtual machine also needs elevated privileges, either running as superuser or (for Linux) having capability CAP_SYS_ADMIN according to the documentation for setns(2). However, during testing also CAP_SYS_PTRACE and CAP_DAC_READ_SEARCH have proven to be necessary.

        Example:

            setcap cap_sys_admin,cap_sys_ptrace,cap_dac_read_search+epi beam.smp

        Notice that the filesystem containing the virtual machine executable (beam.smp in the example) must be local, mounted without flag nosetuid, support extended attributes, and the kernel must support file capabilities. All this runs out of the box on at least Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, except that SCTP sockets appear to not support network namespaces.

        Namespace is a filename and is encoded and decoded as discussed in module file, with the following exceptions:

            • Emulator flag +fnu is ignored.

            • getopts/2 for this option returns a binary for the filename if the stored filename cannot be decoded. This is only to occur if you set the option using a binary that cannot be decoded with the emulator's filename encoding: file:native_name_encoding/0.
    {bind_to_device, Ifname :: binary()}
        Binds a socket to a specific network interface. This option must be used in a function call that creates a socket, that is, gen_tcp:connect/3,4, gen_tcp:listen/2, gen_udp:open/1,2, or gen_sctp:open/0,1,2.

        Unlike getifaddrs/0, Ifname is encoded a binary. In the unlikely case that a system is using non-7-bit-ASCII characters in network device names, special care has to be taken when encoding this argument.

        This option uses the Linux-specific socket option SO_BINDTODEVICE, such as in Linux kernel 2.0.30 or later, and therefore only exists when the runtime system is compiled for such an operating system.

        Before Linux 3.8, this socket option could be set, but could not retrieved with getopts/2. Since Linux 3.8, it is readable.

        The virtual machine also needs elevated privileges, either running as superuser or (for Linux) having capability CAP_NET_RAW.

        The primary use case for this option is to bind sockets into Linux VRF instances.
    list
        Received Packet is delivered as a list.
    binary
        Received Packet is delivered as a binary.

        • {nodelay, Boolean} (TCP/IP sockets) - If Boolean == true, option TCP_NODELAY is turned on for the socket, which means that also small amounts of data are sent immediately.

        This option is not supported for domain = local, but if inet_backend =/= socket this error will be ignored.
    {nopush, Boolean} (TCP/IP sockets)
        This translates to TCP_NOPUSH on BSD and to TCP_CORK on Linux.

        If Boolean == true, the corresponding option is turned on for the socket, which means that small amounts of data are accumulated until a full MSS-worth of data is available or this option is turned off.

        Note that while TCP_NOPUSH socket option is available on OSX, its semantics is very different (e.g., unsetting it does not cause immediate send of accumulated data). Hence, nopush option is intentionally ignored on OSX.

        • {packet, PacketType} (TCP/IP sockets) - Defines the type of packets to use for a socket. Possible values: raw | 0
            No packaging is done.
        1 | 2 | 4
            Packets consist of a header specifying the number of bytes in the packet, followed by that number of bytes. The header length can be one, two, or four bytes, and containing an unsigned integer in big-endian byte order. Each send operation generates the header, and the header is stripped off on each receive operation.

            The 4-byte header is limited to 2Gb.
        asn1 | cdr | sunrm | fcgi | tpkt | line
            These packet types only have effect on receiving. When sending a packet, it is the responsibility of the application to supply a correct header. On receiving, however, one message is sent to the controlling process for each complete packet received, and, similarly, each call to gen_tcp:recv/2,3 returns one complete packet. The header is not stripped off.

            The meanings of the packet types are as follows: asn1
                ASN.1 BER
            sunrm
                Sun's RPC encoding
            cdr
                CORBA (GIOP 1.1)
            fcgi
                Fast CGI
            tpkt
                TPKT format [RFC1006]
            line
                Line mode, a packet is a line-terminated with newline, lines longer than the receive buffer are truncated
        http | http_bin
            The Hypertext Transfer Protocol. The packets are returned with the format according to HttpPacket described in erlang:decode_packet/3 in ERTS. A socket in passive mode returns {ok, HttpPacket} from gen_tcp:recv while an active socket sends messages like {http, Socket, HttpPacket}.
        httph | httph_bin
            These two types are often not needed, as the socket automatically switches from http/http_bin to httph/httph_bin internally after the first line is read. However, there can be occasions when they are useful, such as parsing trailers from chunked encoding.
    {packet_size, Integer}(TCP/IP sockets)
        Sets the maximum allowed length of the packet body. If the packet header indicates that the length of the packet is longer than the maximum allowed length, the packet is considered invalid. The same occurs if the packet header is too large for the socket receive buffer.

        For line-oriented protocols (line, http*), option packet_size also guarantees that lines up to the indicated length are accepted and not considered invalid because of internal buffer limitations.

        • {line_delimiter, Char} (TCP/IP sockets) - Sets the line delimiting character for line-oriented protocols (line). Defaults to $\n.
    {raw, Protocol, OptionNum, ValueBin}
        See below.

        • {read_ahead, Boolean} - If set to false avoids reading ahead from the OS socket layer. The default for this option is true which speeds up packet header parsing. Setting false has a performance penalty because the packet header has to be read first, to know exactly how many bytes to read for the body, which roughly doubles the number of read operations.

        The use of this option is essential for example before switching to kTLS which activates OS socket layer encryption and decryption by setting special (raw) socket options. So if the Erlang socket layer has read ahead, it has read bytes that was for the OS socket layer to decrypt, which makes packet decryption derail for the connection.

        WARNING: For packet modes that doesn't have the packet length at a fixed location in a packet header, such as line or asn1, not reading ahead can become very inefficient since sometimes the only way to accomplish this is to read one byte at the time until the length or packet end is found.

        • {read_packets, Integer} (UDP sockets) - Sets the maximum number of UDP packets to read without intervention from the socket when data is available. When this many packets have been read and delivered to the destination process, new packets are not read until a new notification of available data has arrived. Defaults to 5. If this parameter is set too high, the system can become unresponsive because of UDP packet flooding.

        • {recbuf, Size} - The minimum size of the receive buffer to use for the socket. You are encouraged to use getopts/2 to retrieve the size set by your operating system.

        • {recvtclass, Boolean} - If set to true activates returning the received TCLASS value on platforms that implements the protocol IPPROTO_IPV6 option IPV6_RECVTCLASS or IPV6_2292RECVTCLASS for the socket. The value is returned as a {tclass,TCLASS} tuple regardless of if the platform returns an IPV6_TCLASS or an IPV6_RECVTCLASS CMSG value.

        For packet oriented sockets that supports receiving ancillary data with the payload data (gen_udp and gen_sctp), the TCLASS value is returned in an extended return tuple contained in an ancillary data list. For stream oriented sockets (gen_tcp) the only way to get the TCLASS value is if the platform supports the pktoptions option.

        • {recvtos, Boolean} - If set to true activates returning the received TOS value on platforms that implements the protocol IPPROTO_IP option IP_RECVTOS for the socket. The value is returned as a {tos,TOS} tuple regardless of if the platform returns an IP_TOS or an IP_RECVTOS CMSG value.

        For packet oriented sockets that supports receiving ancillary data with the payload data (gen_udp and gen_sctp), the TOS value is returned in an extended return tuple contained in an ancillary data list. For stream oriented sockets (gen_tcp) the only way to get the TOS value is if the platform supports the pktoptions option.

        • {recvttl, Boolean} - If set to true activates returning the received TTL value on platforms that implements the protocol IPPROTO_IP option IP_RECVTTL for the socket. The value is returned as a {ttl,TTL} tuple regardless of if the platform returns an IP_TTL or an IP_RECVTTL CMSG value.

        For packet oriented sockets that supports receiving ancillary data with the payload data (gen_udp and gen_sctp), the TTL value is returned in an extended return tuple contained in an ancillary data list. For stream oriented sockets (gen_tcp) the only way to get the TTL value is if the platform supports the pktoptions option.
    {reuseaddr, Boolean}
        Allows or disallows reuse of local address. By default, reuse is disallowed.

        NOTE: On windows {reuseaddr, true} will have no effect unless also {reuseport, true} is set. If both are set, the SO_REUSEADDR Windows socket option will be enabled. This since setting SO_REUSEADDR on Windows more or less has the same behavior as setting both SO_REUSEADDR and SO_REUSEPORT on BSD. This behavior was introduced as of OTP 26.0.

        CHANGE: Previous behavior on Windows:

            • Prior to OTP 25.0, the {reuseaddr, true} option was silently ignored.

            • Between OTP 25.0 and up to the predecessor of OTP 25.2, the underlying SO_REUSEADDR socket option was set if {reuseaddr, true} was set.

            • Between OTP 25.2 and up to the predecessor of OTP 26.0, the underlying SO_REUSEADDR socket option was only set on UDP sockets if {reuseaddr, true} was set, and silently ignored on other sockets.

        See also the exclusiveaddruse option.
    {reuseport, Boolean}
        Allows or disallows reuse of local port which may or may not have load balancing depending on the underlying OS. By default, reuse is disallowed. See also reuseport_lb.

        NOTE: On windows {reuseport, true} will have no effect unless also {reuseaddr, true} is set. If both are set, the SO_REUSEADDR Windows socket option will be enabled. This since setting SO_REUSEADDR on Windows more or less has the same behavior as setting both SO_REUSEADDR and SO_REUSEPORT on BSD. The reuseport option was introduced as of OTP 26.0. See also the exclusiveaddruse option.

        NOTE: reuseport may or may not be the same underlying option as reuseport_lb depending on the underlying OS. They, for example, are on Linux. When they are the same underlying option, operating on both may cause them to interact in surprising ways. For example, by enabling reuseport and then disabling reuseport_lb both will end up being disabled.
    {reuseport_lb, Boolean}
        Allows or disallows reuse of local port with load balancing. By default, reuse is disallowed. See also reuseport.

        NOTE: reuseport_lb may or may not be the same underlying option as reuseport depending on the underlying OS. On Linux, for example, they are. And when they are the same underlying option, operating on both may cause them to interact in surprising ways. For example, by enabling reuseport_lb, and then disabling reuseport, both will end up being disabled.
    {send_timeout, Integer}
        Only allowed for connection-oriented sockets.

        Specifies a longest time to wait for a send operation to be accepted by the underlying TCP stack. When the limit is exceeded, the send operation returns {error, timeout}. How much of a packet that got sent is unknown; the socket is therefore to be closed whenever a time-out has occurred (see send_timeout_close below). Defaults to infinity.
    {send_timeout_close, Boolean}
        Only allowed for connection-oriented sockets.

        Used together with send_timeout to specify whether the socket is to be automatically closed when the send operation returns {error, timeout}. The recommended setting is true, which automatically closes the socket. Defaults to false because of backward compatibility.

        • {show_econnreset, Boolean} (TCP/IP sockets) - When this option is set to false, which is default, an RST received from the TCP peer is treated as a normal close (as though an FIN was sent). A caller to gen_tcp:recv/2 gets {error, closed}. In active mode, the controlling process receives a {tcp_closed, Socket} message, indicating that the peer has closed the connection.

        Setting this option to true allows you to distinguish between a connection that was closed normally, and one that was aborted (intentionally or unintentionally) by the TCP peer. A call to gen_tcp:recv/2 returns {error, econnreset}. In active mode, the controlling process receives a {tcp_error, Socket, econnreset} message before the usual {tcp_closed, Socket}, as is the case for any other socket error. Calls to gen_tcp:send/2 also returns {error, econnreset} when it is detected that a TCP peer has sent an RST.

        A connected socket returned from gen_tcp:accept/1 inherits the show_econnreset setting from the listening socket.

        • {sndbuf, Size} - The minimum size of the send buffer to use for the socket. You are encouraged to use getopts/2, to retrieve the size set by your operating system.
    {priority, Integer}
        Sets the SO_PRIORITY socket level option on platforms where this is implemented. The behavior and allowed range varies between different systems. The option is ignored on platforms where it is not implemented. Use with caution.
    {tos, Integer}
        Sets IP_TOS IP level options on platforms where this is implemented. The behavior and allowed range varies between different systems. The option is ignored on platforms where it is not implemented. Use with caution.
    {tclass, Integer}
        Sets IPV6_TCLASS IP level options on platforms where this is implemented. The behavior and allowed range varies between different systems. The option is ignored on platforms where it is not implemented. Use with caution.
    {user_timeout, Integer} (TCP/IP sockets)
        Linux specific TCP_USER_TIMEOUT.

    In addition to these options, raw option specifications can be used. The raw options are specified as a tuple of arity four, beginning with tag raw, followed by the protocol level, the option number, and the option value specified as a binary. This corresponds to the second, third, and fourth arguments to the setsockopt call in the C socket API. The option value must be coded in the native endianness of the platform and, if a structure is required, must follow the structure alignment conventions on the specific platform.

    Using raw socket options requires detailed knowledge about the current operating system and TCP stack.

    Example:

    This example concerns the use of raw options. Consider a Linux system where you want to set option TCP_LINGER2 on protocol level IPPROTO_TCP in the stack. You know that on this particular system it defaults to 60 (seconds), but you want to lower it to 30 for a particular socket. Option TCP_LINGER2 is not explicitly supported by inet, but you know that the protocol level translates to number 6, the option number to number 8, and the value is to be specified as a 32-bit integer. You can use this code line to set the option for the socket named Sock:

        inet:setopts(Sock, [{raw,6,8,<<30:32/native>>}]),

    As many options are silently discarded by the stack if they are specified out of range; it can be a good idea to check that a raw option is accepted. The following code places the value in variable TcpLinger2:

        {ok,[{raw,6,8,<<TcpLinger2:32/native>>}]}=inet:getopts(Sock,[{raw,6,8,4}]),

    Code such as these examples is inherently non-portable, even different versions of the same OS on the same platform can respond differently to this kind of option manipulation. Use with care.

    Notice that the default options for TCP/IP sockets can be changed with the Kernel configuration parameters mentioned in the beginning of this manual page.
sockname(Socket :: socket()) -> {ok, {ip_address(), port_number()} | returned_non_ip_address()} | {error, posix()}.

    Return the local address and port number for a socket.

    Notice that for SCTP sockets this function returns only one of the socket addresses. Function socknames/1,2 returns all.
socknames(Socket :: socket()) -> {ok, [{ip_address(), port_number()} | returned_non_ip_address()]} | {error, posix()}.

    Equivalent to socknames(Socket, 0).
socknames(Socket, Assoc) -> {ok, [{Address, Port}]} | {error, posix()} when Socket :: socket(), Assoc :: #sctp_assoc_change{} | gen_sctp:assoc_id(), Address :: ip_address(), Port :: non_neg_integer().

    Return all localaddresses for a socket.

    Returns a list of all local address/port number pairs for a socket, for the specified association Assoc.

    This function can return multiple addresses for multihomed sockets, such as SCTP sockets. For other sockets it returns a one-element list.

    Notice that parameter Assoc is by the SCTP Sockets API Extensions defined to be ignored for one-to-one style sockets. For one-to-many style sockets, the special value 0 is defined to mean that the returned addresses must be without any particular association. How different SCTP implementations interpret this varies somewhat.