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Sockets programming in Python

Develop networking applications using Python's basic sockets features

M. Tim Jones (mtj@mtjones.com), Senior Principal Software Engineer, Emulex Corp.
M. Tim Jones is a senior principal software engineer with Emulex Corp. in Longmont, Colorado, where he architects and designs networking and storage products. Tim's design activities have ranged from real-time kernels for communication satellites to networking protocols and embedded firmware. He is the author of many articles on subjects from artificial intelligence (AI) to application-layer protocol development. He has also the author of AI Application Programming (now in its second edition), GNU/Linux Application Programming, BSD Sockets Programming from a Multilanguage Perspective, and TCP/IP Application Layer Protocols for Embedded Systems (all through Charles River Media).
(An IBM developerWorks Contributing Author)

Summary:  This tutorial shows how to develop sockets-based networking applications using Python. In this tutorial, you first learn a few Python basics and see why Python makes a good network programming language. Then you move on to the basic sockets features of Python, using a sample chat application as a guide, and look at several other, high-level, classes that provide asynchronous communications.

Date:  04 Oct 2005
Level:  Intermediate
PDF:  A4 and Letter (87 KB | 25 pages)Get Adobe® Reader®

Activity:  32368 views
Comments:  

Before you start

About this tutorial

Python is a popular object-oriented scripting language with a simple syntax and a large developer base. It is a general purpose language and can be used in a variety of settings. It's also popular as a beginner's programming language, much like the BASIC language of the 1970s.

This tutorial demonstrates the Python language with emphasis on networking programming. I define the basic sockets features of Python in addition to some of Python's other classes that provide asynchronous sockets. I also detail Python's application-layer protocol classes, showing how to build Web clients, mail servers and clients, and more.

I also demonstrate a simple chat server to illustrate the power of Python for sockets applications.

You should have a basic understanding of the standard BSD Sockets API and some experience with the GNU/Linux® environment. Some familiarity with object-oriented concepts is also beneficial.

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Prerequisites

This tutorial and the examples demonstrated in it rely on version 2.4 of Python. You can download this version from the Python Web site (see Resources for a link). To build the Python interpreter, you need the GNU C compiler (gcc) and the configure/make utilities (which are part of any standard GNU/Linux distribution).

You should have a basic understanding of the standard BSD Sockets API and some experience with the GNU/Linux environment. Some familiarity with object-oriented concepts is also beneficial.

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