From: "Günther Noack" <gnoack3000@gmail.com>
To: Alejandro Colomar <alx@kernel.org>
Cc: linux-man@vger.kernel.org, "Günther Noack" <gnoack3000@gmail.com>,
"Michael Kerrisk" <mtk.manpages@gmail.com>,
"Alexander Mikhalitsyn" <alexander@mihalicyn.com>,
"Kuniyuki Iwashima" <kuniyu@google.com>
Subject: [PATCH 3/7] man/man7/unix.7: Autobind: Clarify when it happens, and mention SO_PASSPIDFD
Date: Wed, 21 Oct 2026 23:22:52 +0200 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20261021212256.27961-4-gnoack3000@gmail.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20261021212256.27961-1-gnoack3000@gmail.com>
Autobind happens if either one of SO_PASSCRED/SO_PASSPIDFD is set and
either connect() or sendmsg() happens. Mention SO_PASSPIDFD and
clarify that autobind does not happen immediately when setting these
socket options.
In linux.git net/unix/af_unix.c, unix_autobind() is called by
unix_dgram_connect(), unix_stream_connect() and unix_dgram_sendmsg(),
if the socket has no address and unix_may_passcred() is true.
unix_may_passcred() is also true when SO_PASSPIDFD is set, which was
added in linux.git 5e2ff6704a27 (2023-06-12; "scm: add SO_PASSPIDFD and
SCM_PIDFD"), Linux 6.5.
Also, the old text said "not yet connected", but the condition is
about the socket not being bound.
Fixes: 9d1fd1157306 (1999-06-15, 2022-12-19; "man-pages 1.24")
Fixes: 0cf2caa41ea6 (2010-10-10; "unix.7: Document the autobind feature")
Cc: Michael Kerrisk <mtk.manpages@gmail.com>
Cc: Alexander Mikhalitsyn <alexander@mihalicyn.com>
Cc: Kuniyuki Iwashima <kuniyu@google.com>
Assisted-by: LLM
Signed-off-by: Günther Noack <gnoack3000@gmail.com>
---
Notes:
Rephrased the LLM-generated text so that the canonical description is
in the "Autobind feature" section and the other place just refers to
it.
SO_PASSPIDFD is unfortunately not documented yet at this point in
time, but it's still correct to mention it here.
man/man7/unix.7 | 25 ++++++++++++++++++++-----
1 file changed, 20 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)
diff --git a/man/man7/unix.7 b/man/man7/unix.7
index a1dce8c47246..ded82768322b 100644
--- a/man/man7/unix.7
+++ b/man/man7/unix.7
@@ -301,8 +301,14 @@ if the sender did not specify
.B SCM_CREDENTIALS
ancillary data.
.IP
-When this option is set and the socket is not yet connected,
-a unique name in the abstract namespace will be generated automatically.
+When this option is set on a socket that is not bound to an address,
+the socket is autobound to a unique name in the abstract namespace
+when
+.BR connect (2)
+or
+.BR sendmsg (2)
+is called on it;
+see "Autobind feature", below.
.IP
The value given as an argument to
.BR setsockopt (2)
@@ -370,10 +376,19 @@ call specifies
as
.IR sizeof(sa_family_t) ,
.\" i.e., sizeof(short)
-or the
+or if
+.BR connect (2)
+or
+.BR sendmsg (2)
+is called on a socket that was
+not explicitly bound to an address
+and that has the
.B SO_PASSCRED
-socket option was specified for a socket that was
-not explicitly bound to an address,
+or
+.\" commit 5e2ff6704a275be009be8979af17c52361b79b89
+.B SO_PASSPIDFD
+(since Linux 6.5)
+socket option enabled,
then the socket is autobound to an abstract address.
The address consists of a null byte
followed by 5 bytes in the character set
--
2.56.0
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2026-10-21 21:23 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 35+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2026-10-21 21:22 [PATCH 0/7] unix.7: Socket Options and SCM_* fixes Günther Noack
2026-10-21 21:22 ` [PATCH 1/7] man/man7/unix.7: ERRORS: ETOOMANYREFS: Fix the conditions Günther Noack
2026-10-22 21:14 ` Alejandro Colomar
2026-10-23 16:50 ` Günther Noack
2026-10-24 4:45 ` Kuniyuki Iwashima
2026-10-21 21:22 ` [PATCH 2/7] man/man7/unix.7: Multiple same-typed SCM_* messages may be sent in one message Günther Noack
2026-10-22 21:28 ` Alejandro Colomar
2026-10-23 17:09 ` Günther Noack
2026-10-21 21:22 ` Günther Noack [this message]
2026-10-24 4:57 ` [PATCH 3/7] man/man7/unix.7: Autobind: Clarify when it happens, and mention SO_PASSPIDFD Kuniyuki Iwashima
2026-10-26 21:55 ` Günther Noack
2026-10-27 5:04 ` Kuniyuki Iwashima
2026-10-21 21:22 ` [PATCH 4/7] man/man7/unix.7: SCM_SECURITY: Generalize to other LSMs, not just SELinux Günther Noack
2026-10-23 9:57 ` Alejandro Colomar
2026-10-23 17:57 ` Günther Noack
2026-10-23 18:13 ` Alejandro Colomar
2026-10-26 22:41 ` Günther Noack
2026-10-27 8:54 ` Günther Noack
2026-10-27 21:46 ` Alejandro Colomar
2026-10-27 22:30 ` Günther Noack
2026-10-27 22:59 ` Alejandro Colomar
2026-10-28 6:19 ` Günther Noack
2026-10-28 12:45 ` Alejandro Colomar
2026-10-27 16:32 ` Casey Schaufler
2026-10-27 21:52 ` Alejandro Colomar
2026-10-21 21:22 ` [PATCH 5/7] man/man7/unix.7: SO_PASSSEC: wfix Günther Noack
2026-10-24 5:02 ` Kuniyuki Iwashima
2026-10-24 8:36 ` Alejandro Colomar
2026-10-26 22:42 ` Günther Noack
2026-10-27 5:05 ` Kuniyuki Iwashima
2026-10-21 21:22 ` [PATCH 6/7] man/man7/unix.7: Document SO_PASSPIDFD, SO_PEERPIDFD, and SCM_PIDFD Günther Noack
2026-10-24 5:22 ` Kuniyuki Iwashima
2026-10-26 23:02 ` Günther Noack
2026-10-27 5:06 ` Kuniyuki Iwashima
2026-10-21 21:22 ` [PATCH 7/7] man/man7/unix.7: Document SO_PASSRIGHTS Günther Noack
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