Socat facilitates two-way data transfer between unconnected data channels acting as a relay.
If you are looking for a versatile and powerful tool for bidirectional data transfer between independent data channels, then the Socat project is the ideal solution. This software supports a wide range of data channels, including files, pipes, devices (such as serial lines or pseudo terminals), sockets (UNIX, IP4, IP6, raw, UDP, and TCP), SSL sockets, proxy CONNECT connections, program combinations, and more.
Socat also includes advanced features such as the ability to generate "listening" sockets, named pipes, and pseudo terminals. This makes it ideal for a range of tasks, including TCP port forwarding, attacking weak firewalls, serving as a shell interface to UNIX sockets, IP6 relay, redirecting TCP-oriented programs to a serial line, logically connecting serial lines on different computers, and establishing a secure environment for running client or server shell scripts with network connections.
One of the key advantages of Socat is its versatility. The software offers many options to refine its behavior, including terminal parameters, open() options, file permissions, file and process owners, basic socket options like bind address, advanced socket options like IP source routing, linger, TTL, TOS (type of service), or TCP performance tuning.
Other features of Socat include daemon mode with forking, client address checking, "tail -f" mode, stream data processing (such as line terminator conversion), the ability to choose sockets, pipes, or ptys for interprocess communication, debug and trace options, logging to syslog, stderr, or file, and precise error messages.
Overall, the Socat project offers a comprehensive (UNIX) byte stream connector that is flexible, simple, and powerful. While many of its individual features may be available in other specialized tools, Socat offers a generic solution that can handle a diverse range of data transfer tasks.
Socat also includes advanced features such as the ability to generate "listening" sockets, named pipes, and pseudo terminals. This makes it ideal for a range of tasks, including TCP port forwarding, attacking weak firewalls, serving as a shell interface to UNIX sockets, IP6 relay, redirecting TCP-oriented programs to a serial line, logically connecting serial lines on different computers, and establishing a secure environment for running client or server shell scripts with network connections.
One of the key advantages of Socat is its versatility. The software offers many options to refine its behavior, including terminal parameters, open() options, file permissions, file and process owners, basic socket options like bind address, advanced socket options like IP source routing, linger, TTL, TOS (type of service), or TCP performance tuning.
Other features of Socat include daemon mode with forking, client address checking, "tail -f" mode, stream data processing (such as line terminator conversion), the ability to choose sockets, pipes, or ptys for interprocess communication, debug and trace options, logging to syslog, stderr, or file, and precise error messages.
Overall, the Socat project offers a comprehensive (UNIX) byte stream connector that is flexible, simple, and powerful. While many of its individual features may be available in other specialized tools, Socat offers a generic solution that can handle a diverse range of data transfer tasks.
What's New
Version 1.7.1.1 / 2.0.0 Beta 3: N/A