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<div class="section" id="module-socket">
<span id="socket-network-communication"></span><h1>socket – Network Communication<a class="headerlink" href="#module-socket" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h1>
<table class="docutils field-list" frame="void" rules="none">
<col class="field-name" />
<col class="field-body" />
<tbody valign="top">
<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Purpose:</th><td class="field-body">Provides access to network communication</td>
</tr>
<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Python Version:</th><td class="field-body">1.4 and later</td>
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<p>The <a class="reference internal" href="#module-socket" title="socket: Network communication"><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">socket</span></tt></a> module exposes the low-level C API for communicating
over a network using the BSD socket interface. It includes the
<a class="reference internal" href="#module-socket" title="socket: Network communication"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">socket</span></tt></a> class, for handling the actual data channel, and
functions for network-related tasks such as converting a server’s name
to an address and formatting data to be sent across the network.</p>
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<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="addressing.html">Addressing, Protocol Families and Socket Types</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="addressing.html#looking-up-hosts-on-the-network">Looking up Hosts on the Network</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="addressing.html#finding-service-information">Finding Service Information</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="addressing.html#looking-up-server-addresses">Looking Up Server Addresses</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="addressing.html#ip-address-representations">IP Address Representations</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="tcp.html">TCP/IP Client and Server</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="tcp.html#echo-server">Echo Server</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="tcp.html#echo-client">Echo Client</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="tcp.html#client-and-server-together">Client and Server Together</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="tcp.html#easy-client-connections">Easy Client Connections</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="tcp.html#choosing-an-address-for-listening">Choosing an Address for Listening</a></li>
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<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="udp.html">User Datagram Client and Server</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="udp.html#echo-server">Echo Server</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="udp.html#echo-client">Echo Client</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="udp.html#client-and-server-together">Client and Server Together</a></li>
</ul>
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<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="uds.html">Unix Domain Sockets</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="uds.html#permissions">Permissions</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="uds.html#communication-between-parent-and-child-processes">Communication Between Parent and Child Processes</a></li>
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<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="multicast.html">Multicast</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="multicast.html#sending-multicast-messages">Sending Multicast Messages</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="multicast.html#receiving-multicast-messages">Receiving Multicast Messages</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="multicast.html#example-output">Example Output</a></li>
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<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="binary.html">Sending Binary Data</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="nonblocking.html">Non-blocking Communication and Timeouts</a></li>
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<div class="admonition-see-also admonition seealso">
<p class="first admonition-title">See also</p>
<dl class="last docutils">
<dt><a class="reference external" href="http://docs.python.org/library/socket.html">socket</a></dt>
<dd>The standard library documentation for this module.</dd>
<dt><a class="reference external" href="http://docs.python.org/howto/sockets.html">Socket Programming HOWOTO</a></dt>
<dd>An instructional guide by Gordon McMillan, included in the
standard library documentation.</dd>
<dt><a class="reference internal" href="../select/index.html#module-select" title="select: Wait for I/O Efficiently"><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">select</span></tt></a></dt>
<dd>Testing a socket to see if it is ready for reading or writing.</dd>
<dt><a class="reference internal" href="../SocketServer/index.html#module-SocketServer" title="SocketServer: Creating network servers."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">SocketServer</span></tt></a></dt>
<dd>Framework for creating network servers.</dd>
<dt><a class="reference internal" href="../asyncore/index.html#module-asyncore" title="asyncore: Asynchronous I/O handler"><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">asyncore</span></tt></a> and <a class="reference internal" href="../asynchat/index.html#module-asynchat" title="asynchat: Asynchronous protocol handler"><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">asynchat</span></tt></a></dt>
<dd>Frameworks for asynchronous communication.</dd>
<dt><a class="reference internal" href="../urllib/index.html#module-urllib" title="urllib: Accessing remote resources that don't need authentication, cookies, etc."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">urllib</span></tt></a> and <a class="reference internal" href="../urllib2/index.html#module-urllib2" title="urllib2: Library for opening URLs."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">urllib2</span></tt></a></dt>
<dd>Most network clients should use the more convenient libraries
for accessing remote resoruces through a URL.</dd>
<dt><em>Unix Network Programming, Volume 1: The Sockets Networking API, 3/E</em></dt>
<dd>By W. Richard Stevens, Bill Fenner, and Andrew
M. Rudoff. Published by Addison-Wesley Professional, 2004.
ISBN-10: 0131411551</dd>
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