21 What is a socket
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1 A port to connect printer 2
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A port to connect keyboard
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3 An abstraction to pass data across processes
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4 A hardware device
A socket is an IPC (Inter-Process Communication) abstraction that enables data exchange between processes, whether on the same machine or across a network. It provides a standardized interface for bidirectional communication. Sockets are not hardware ports or physical devices.
A socket is a software abstraction — an endpoint — that lets two processes exchange data over a network or between machines, regardless of the underlying hardware or transport details. It isn't a physical port for peripherals like a printer or keyboard, and it isn't a hardware device itself; it's purely a programming interface for interprocess communication.