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linuxkernelunix-socket

Identify other end of a unix domain socket connection


I'm trying to figure out what process is holding the other end of a unix domain socket. In some strace output I've identified a given file descriptor which is involved in the problem I'm currently debugging, and I'd like to know which process is on the other end of that. As there are multiple connections to that socket, simply going by path name won't work.

lsof provides me with the following information:

dbus-daem  4175  mvg   10u  unix 0xffff8803e256d9c0      0t0  12828 @/tmp/dbus-LyGToFzlcG

So I know some address (“kernel address”?), I know some socket number, and I know the path. I can find that same information in other places:

$ netstat -n | grep 12828
unix  3      [ ]         STREAM     CONNECTED     12828    @/tmp/dbus-LyGToFzlcG
$ grep -E '12828|ffff8803e256d9c0' /proc/net/unix
ffff8803e256d9c0: 00000003 00000000 00000000 0001 03 12828 @/tmp/dbus-LyGToFzlcG
$ ls -l /proc/*/fd/* 2>/dev/null | grep 12828
lrwx------ 1 mvg users 64 10. Aug 09:08 /proc/4175/fd/10 -> socket:[12828]

However, none of this tells me what the other end of my socket connection is. How can I tell which process is holding the other end?


Solution

  • Update: It's been possible to to do this using actual interfaces for a while now. Starting with Linux 3.3, the UNIX_DIAG feature provides a netlink-based API for this information, and lsof 4.89 and later support it. See https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/190606/1820 for more information.