sockaddr_un address structure of the AF_UNIX address family

With the AF_UNIX address family, a name (address) comprises a path name. You use the sockaddr_un address structure for the AF_UNIX address family.

The sockaddr_un structure is declared as follows in the <sys/un.h> header file:

struct sockaddr_un {
    sa_family_t  sun_family;       /* address family */
    char         sun_path[108];    /* path name */
};

You can supply a variable server of type struct sockaddr_un with a name, e.g. using the following statements:

struct sockaddr_un server;
...
server.sun_family = AF_UNIX;
strcpy(server.sun_path, “/tmp/unix_socket“);

A pointer to the variable server can now be passed as the current parameter, e.g. with a bind() call, to bind the name to a socket:

bind(..., (struct sockaddr *)&server, ...);  /* bind() call with type conversion */