The R Project SVN R

\name{make.socket}
\title{Create a socket connection}
\usage{
make.socket(host="localhost", port, fail=TRUE, server=FALSE)
close.socket(socket)
}
\alias{make.socket}

\arguments{
    \item{host}{name of remote host}
    \item{port}{port to connect to/listen on}
    \item{fail}{failure to connect is an error?}
    \item{server}{a server socket?}
}
\description{
    With \code{server=FALSE} attempts to open a client socket to the
    specified port and host. With \code{server=TRUE} listens on the
    specified port for a connection and then returns a server socket. It is
    a good idea to use \code{\link{on.exit}} to ensure that a socket is
    closed, as you only get 64 of them.
}
\value{
    An object of class \code{"socket"}.
    \item{socket}{socket number. This is for internal use}
    \item{port}{port number of the connection}
    \item{host}{name of remote computer}
}
\author{Thomas Lumley}
\references{
    Adapted from Luke Tierney's code for \code{XLISP-Stat}, in turn
    based on code from Robbins and Robbins "Practical UNIX Programming"
}
\section{WARNING}{
    I don't know if the connecting host name returned
    when \code{server=TRUE} can be trusted. I suspect not.
} 

\seealso{
    \code{\link{close.socket}}, \code{\link{read.socket}}
}

\examples{
daytime <- function(host = "localhost"){
    a <- make.socket(host, 13)
    on.exit(close.socket(a))
    read.socket(a)
}
\dontrun{daytime()}  ## only works if your computer runs this service
\dontrun{daytime("chime.cac.washington.edu")}
}
\keyword{misc}