Socat

Socat is a cool open-source tool that runs in the command line. It's built in C and designed to work as a bidirectional data transfer relay between two separate data channels. This means it can send and receive data between different sources.

What Socat Supports

Right now, Socat can handle a bunch of different types of connections like pipes, files, devices (think modems or terminals), SSL, and sockets (including IPv4, IPv6, UNIX, UDP, and TCP). It even works with proxy CONNECT and SOCKS4 clients! Plus, it supports multicasts and broadcasts too. If you're into networking, you'll appreciate features like Linux tap/tun support and abstract Unix sockets.

Features of Socat

This software has some pretty neat features. For instance, it offers logging capabilities and lets you fork different modes for interprocess communication. You can use it as a TCP or IPv6/IPv4 relay or as a shell interface to UNIX sockets. It also acts as a daemon-based socksifier or helps redirect TCP-oriented software to serial lines.

Command-Line Options

Socat has tons of command-line options that make it super flexible! You can check these out quickly by running ./socat -h in your terminal emulator. Some cool options include analyzing file descriptors before the loop starts, setting timeouts before closing channels, and specifying unidirectional mode.

Installation Made Easy

If you want to install Socat on your GNU/Linux system, it's really straightforward! Just run ./configure && make in your terminal to set everything up. After that, use sudo make install. Just make sure you've downloaded the latest version from Softpas.