Re: ss(1) :-) (or ss(8), depending upon one's distro)

[ace36 <acohen36@gmail.com>]

On Sun, Feb 25, 2018 at 11:45 PM, Michael Paoli <Michael.Paoli@cal.berkeley.edu> wrote:

So, 2018-02-11 Berkeley Linux User Group (BerkeleyLUG) meeting, some
discussion of ss(1) came up.

Nice discussion of much more-detailed ss(1) usage.

For the one or two persons such as yours-truly who are slightly or more bewildered on where all this is coming from, there is this excerpt from the ss(8) manual page to help out a little bit.

Quoting the results from 'man 8 ss' :
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SS(8)                                          System Manager's Manual                                          SS(8)
NAME
       ss - another utility to investigate sockets
SYNOPSIS
       ss [options] [ FILTER ]
DESCRIPTION
       ss  is  used to dump socket statistics. It allows showing information similar to netstat.  It can display more
       TCP and state informations than other tools.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

'ss(1)' is then a useful Unix Systems Administration software tool that at least Michael P is using to glean more intricate detail on internal network sockets.

I found this good (and less-technical!) definition of an internal "network socket" from https://techterms.com/definition/socket

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ quoting ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Socket

When a computer program needs to connect to a local or wide area network such as the Internet, it uses a software component called a socket. The socket opens the network connection for the program, allowing data to be read and written over the network. It is important to note that these sockets are software, not hardware, like a wall socket. So, yes, you have a much greater chance of being shocked by a wall socket than by a networking socket.

Sockets are a key part of Unix and Windows-based operating systems. They make it easy for software developers to create network-enabled programs. Instead of constructing network connections from scratch for each program they write, developers can just include sockets in their programs. The sockets allow the programs to use the operating system's built-in commands to handle networking functions. Because they are used for a number of different network protocols (i.e. HTTP, FTP, telnet, and e-mail), many sockets can be open at one time.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Another helpful description of internal network sockets is Lifewire's An Overview of Socket Programming for Computer Networking, https://www.lifewire.com/socket-programming-for-computer-networking-4056385

Hope that this helps someone else besides yours-truly trying to better process what Michael P previously wrote above ;-)

-A

-- 
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "BerkeleyLUG" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to berkeleylug+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to berkeleylug@googlegroups.com.
Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/berkeleylug.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.