What distinguishes Berkeley sockets from POSIX pipes in interprocess communication?

Berkeley sockets and POSIX pipes are two different mechanisms of interprocess communication (IPC), differing in purpose and operation.

• Berkeley sockets are designed for data exchange between processes that can be on the same computer or different computers over a network. They facilitate communication through network protocols (TCP, UDP), support IP and port addressing, and enable the creation of client-server applications.

• POSIX pipes are a mechanism for data exchange between processes, usually related as parent-child, and operate only within a single computer. Pipes provide a stream-based data exchange (usually unidirectional), do not have addressing, and are not intended for network interaction.

Thus, the main difference:

• Berkeley sockets — a universal IPC supporting network interaction.
• POSIX pipes — a simple local data transfer channel between processes on the same host.

Example of using socket (C):

int sockfd = socket(AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, 0);
// Setting up address, bind, listen, accept, etc.

Example of using pipe (C):

int fd[2];
pipe(fd); // fd[0] for reading, fd[1] for writing