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#### 16.8.1 Creating a Socket

The primitive for creating a socket is the `socket` function, declared in `sys/socket.h`.

— Function: int socket (int namespace, int style, int protocol)

> This function creates a socket and specifies communication style style, which should be one of the socket styles listed in Communication Styles. The namespace argument specifies the namespace; it must be `PF_LOCAL` (see Local Namespace) or `PF_INET` (see Internet Namespace). protocol designates the specific protocol (see Socket Concepts); zero is usually right for protocol.

> The return value from `socket` is the file descriptor for the new socket, or `-1` in case of error. The following `errno` error conditions are defined for this function:

> `EPROTONOSUPPORT`
>   The protocol or style is not supported by the namespace specified.
> `EMFILE`
>   The process already has too many file descriptors open.
> `ENFILE`
>   The system already has too many file descriptors open.
> `EACCES`
>   The process does not have the privilege to create a socket of the specified style or protocol.
> `ENOBUFS`
>   The system ran out of internal buffer space.

> The file descriptor returned by the `socket` function supports both read and write operations. However, like pipes, sockets do not support file positioning operations.

For examples of how to call the `socket` function, see Local Socket Example, or Inet Example.