NAME

     streams — System V STREAMS networking ABI support

SYNOPSIS

     To compile support for this ABI into the kernel, place the following line in your kernel
     configuration file:

           device streams

     Alternatively, to load the ABI as a module at boot time, place the following line in
     loader.conf(5):

           streams_load="YES"

DESCRIPTION

     The streams module provides limited System V Release 4 STREAMS interprocess communication
     ABI (application binary interface) compatibility for userland applications.

     Internally, streams provides STREAMS handles by using socket creation kernel routines, and
     adding state-tracking information to the socket to permit manipulation by STREAMS emulation
     code in svr4(4).  Hence, opening a stream device produces a result similar to what would be
     obtained by calling socket(2).

     Applications should never use this interface directly: STREAMS emulation is only provided as
     a service to support ABI requirements in the SVR4 environment which svr4(4) needs to present
     to client binaries.

SEE ALSO

     svr4(4)

HISTORY

     System V Release 4 ABI support first appeared in FreeBSD 4.0.  The ABI was ported from an
     equivalent facility present in NetBSD 1.3 written by Christos Zoulas.

BUGS

     This whole interface is a crude hack to produce STREAMS semantics through emulation over
     sockets.

     Programmers who hope to be able to use this interface to provide SVR4 STREAMS services to
     BSD applications will be sorely disappointed.