Getting started:
- run the program you want as a socket server:
./socketify /usr/bin/perl -npe 'tr/m-za-l/a-z/' - run the
test_client.pyscript with the input file (or just open a socket and write to it in your program)python test_client.py README.md
You can use the options -p port and -b bind_address to
select a different port or binding address. (Default is binding
only to localhost, on port 4445).
Why would this be more useful than inetd or similar programs?
socketify runs the program until it first reads from stdin and forks off the server at this point, whereas inetd would always start the program from the beginning. This makes a difference whenever the startup time of the program is significant.
Does it always work?
Right now, the inserted client code only exists for x86, which means that you can socketify 32-bit programs, but not 64-bit programs, on a 64-bit Linux. Programs that do more complex things than reading from stdin and writing to stdout may get confused.