The proper name for unix sockets is Unix Domain Sockets, because they all reside within one computer. In a sense, sockets are a network that is entirely contained within the kernel; rather than using network interfaces to send data, that same data can be sent directly between programs

Despite creating files on disk, Unix sockets don’t actually write the data they send to the disk, as that would be far too slow. Instead, all the data is retained within kernel memory; the only point of the socket file is to maintain a reference to the socket, and to give it filesystem permissions to control access. For example, MySQL’s socket is usually at:

/var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock

This file doesn’t contain anything, and you shouldn’t modify it directly, except for the permissions where applicable. It’s just a name.

The proper name for unix sockets is Unix Domain Sockets, because they all reside within one computer. In a sense, sockets are a network that is entirely contained within the kernel; rather than using network interfaces to send data, that same data can be sent directly between programs

Despite creating files on disk, Unix sockets don’t actually write the data they send to the disk, as that would be far too slow. Instead, all the data is retained within kernel memory; the only point of the socket file is to maintain a reference to the socket, and to give it filesystem permissions to control access. For example, MySQL’s socket is usually at:

/var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock

This file doesn’t contain anything, and you shouldn’t modify it directly, except for the permissions where applicable. It’s just a name.