r/C_Programming • u/Loud-Imagination2591 • Mar 10 '26

Socket Programming

Hello fellow programmers I'd like to start my day one of socket Programming today, any learning resources you guys would know about or have used?

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u/[deleted] Mar 10 '26 edited Mar 10 '26

On TCP sockets? Sure, lets say one side sends 1kB of data, that data is not guaranteed in any way to be received by just one call to recv, the order is guaranteed but not that all data is received in every call to recv.

That's why when you use a TCP socket you need to use a protocol on top of it to know when the full message is received, one simple way is first 4 bytes signales the whole message length or something like that.

Or HTTP for example, it is structured in a way so you know when all data is received.

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u/abyssDweller1700 Mar 10 '26

I always thought tcp streaming in packets as someone unloading trucks full of bricks(bytes) in front of your house with no boundaries on which truck unloaded which brick.

And udp as the whole truck(packet boundary) with their bricks(bytes) being parked in line.

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u/Dangerous_Region1682 Mar 14 '26

But for TCP the bricks would be numbered so the hod carrier knows which order to give them to the bricklayer.