Technical Reference: Communications, Volume 2

splice Subroutine

Purpose

Lets the protocol stack manage two sockets that use TCP.

Syntax

#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/socket.h>

int splice(socket1, socket2, flags)
int socket1, socket2;
int flags;

Description

The splice subroutine will let TCP manage two sockets that are in connected state thus relieving the caller from moving data from one socket to another. After the splice subroutine returns successfully, the caller needs to close the two sockets.

The two sockets should be of type SOCK_STREAM and protocol IPPROTO_TCP. Specifying a protocol of zero will also work.

Parameters

socket1, socket2	Specifies a socket that had gone through a successful connect() or accept().
flags	Set to zero. Currently ignored.

Return Values

0	Indicates a successful completion.
-1	Indicates an error. The specific error is indicated by errno.

Error Codes

EBADF	`socket1` or `socket2` is not valid.
ENOTSOCK	`socket1` or `socket2` refers to a file, not a socket.
EOPNOTSUPP	`socket1` or `socket2` is not of type SOCK_STREAM.
EINVAL	The parameters are invalid.
EEXIST	`socket1` or `socket2` is already spliced.
ENOTCONN	`socket1` or `socket2` is not in connected state.
EAFNOSUPPORT	`socket1` or `socket2` address family is not supported for this subroutine.