Provided by: manpages-posix-dev_2.16-1_all 
NAME
connect - connect a socket
SYNOPSIS
#include <sys/socket.h>
int connect(int socket, const struct sockaddr *address,
socklen_t address_len);
DESCRIPTION
The connect() function shall attempt to make a connection on a socket. The function takes the following
arguments:
socket Specifies the file descriptor associated with the socket.
address
Points to a sockaddr structure containing the peer address. The length and format of the address
depend on the address family of the socket.
address_len
Specifies the length of the sockaddr structure pointed to by the address argument.
If the socket has not already been bound to a local address, connect() shall bind it to an address which,
unless the socket's address family is AF_UNIX, is an unused local address.
If the initiating socket is not connection-mode, then connect() shall set the socket's peer address, and
no connection is made. For SOCK_DGRAM sockets, the peer address identifies where all datagrams are sent
on subsequent send() functions, and limits the remote sender for subsequent recv() functions. If address
is a null address for the protocol, the socket's peer address shall be reset.
If the initiating socket is connection-mode, then connect() shall attempt to establish a connection to
the address specified by the address argument. If the connection cannot be established immediately and
O_NONBLOCK is not set for the file descriptor for the socket, connect() shall block for up to an
unspecified timeout interval until the connection is established. If the timeout interval expires before
the connection is established, connect() shall fail and the connection attempt shall be aborted. If
connect() is interrupted by a signal that is caught while blocked waiting to establish a connection,
connect() shall fail and set errno to [EINTR], but the connection request shall not be aborted, and the
connection shall be established asynchronously.
If the connection cannot be established immediately and O_NONBLOCK is set for the file descriptor for the
socket, connect() shall fail and set errno to [EINPROGRESS], but the connection request shall not be
aborted, and the connection shall be established asynchronously. Subsequent calls to connect() for the
same socket, before the connection is established, shall fail and set errno to [EALREADY].
When the connection has been established asynchronously, select() and poll() shall indicate that the file
descriptor for the socket is ready for writing.
The socket in use may require the process to have appropriate privileges to use the connect() function.
RETURN VALUE
Upon successful completion, connect() shall return 0; otherwise, -1 shall be returned and errno set to
indicate the error.
ERRORS
The connect() function shall fail if:
EADDRNOTAVAIL
The specified address is not available from the local machine.
EAFNOSUPPORT
The specified address is not a valid address for the address family of the specified socket.
EALREADY
A connection request is already in progress for the specified socket.
EBADF The socket argument is not a valid file descriptor.
ECONNREFUSED
The target address was not listening for connections or refused the connection request.
EINPROGRESS
O_NONBLOCK is set for the file descriptor for the socket and the connection cannot be immediately
established; the connection shall be established asynchronously.
EINTR The attempt to establish a connection was interrupted by delivery of a signal that was caught; the
connection shall be established asynchronously.
EISCONN
The specified socket is connection-mode and is already connected.
ENETUNREACH
No route to the network is present.
ENOTSOCK
The socket argument does not refer to a socket.
EPROTOTYPE
The specified address has a different type than the socket bound to the specified peer address.
ETIMEDOUT
The attempt to connect timed out before a connection was made.
If the address family of the socket is AF_UNIX, then connect() shall fail if:
EIO An I/O error occurred while reading from or writing to the file system.
ELOOP A loop exists in symbolic links encountered during resolution of the pathname in address.
ENAMETOOLONG
A component of a pathname exceeded {NAME_MAX} characters, or an entire pathname exceeded
{PATH_MAX} characters.
ENOENT A component of the pathname does not name an existing file or the pathname is an empty string.
ENOTDIR
A component of the path prefix of the pathname in address is not a directory.
The connect() function may fail if:
EACCES Search permission is denied for a component of the path prefix; or write access to the named
socket is denied.
EADDRINUSE
Attempt to establish a connection that uses addresses that are already in use.
ECONNRESET
Remote host reset the connection request.
EHOSTUNREACH
The destination host cannot be reached (probably because the host is down or a remote router
cannot reach it).
EINVAL The address_len argument is not a valid length for the address family; or invalid address family
in the sockaddr structure.
ELOOP More than {SYMLOOP_MAX} symbolic links were encountered during resolution of the pathname in
address.
ENAMETOOLONG
Pathname resolution of a symbolic link produced an intermediate result whose length exceeds
{PATH_MAX}.
ENETDOWN
The local network interface used to reach the destination is down.
ENOBUFS
No buffer space is available.
EOPNOTSUPP
The socket is listening and cannot be connected.
The following sections are informative.
EXAMPLES
None.
APPLICATION USAGE
If connect() fails, the state of the socket is unspecified. Conforming applications should close the
file descriptor and create a new socket before attempting to reconnect.
RATIONALE
None.
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
None.
SEE ALSO
accept() , bind() , close() , getsockname() , poll() , select() , send() , shutdown() , socket() , the
Base Definitions volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, <sys/socket.h>
COPYRIGHT
Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2003 Edition,
Standard for Information Technology -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
Specifications Issue 6, Copyright (C) 2001-2003 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers,
Inc and The Open Group. In the event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and
The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard is the referee document. The
original Standard can be obtained online at http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .