why listen unix socket?

[iampastor]

hi:
I was thinking write something like this before, when I found you work, I think this is really what I want, and I read a little about the code, I am a little confused about the unix socket, I think without the unix socket listener, all the command flags can also be handled. So why listen on an unix socket to handle command?

[crawshaw]

The unix socket is used to communicate between a running littleboss and a new instance. When you type:

./mybin -littleboss=status
./mybin -littleboss=reload

Both of these processes find the unix socket and communicate with the running littleboss.

There are alternatives, but this seems like the simplest.