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.

Debian                                           March 17, 2008                                       STREAMS(4)