What it is
socat is a relay: it opens two connections and passes data between them in both directions. Either end can be a TCP or UDP port, a Unix socket, a file, a serial device or a program’s input and output, which makes it a general tool for forwarding ports, testing network services and debugging sockets.
socat TCP-LISTEN:8080,fork TCP:localhost:3000 # forward port 8080 to 3000
Why it’s here
- Glue for networking. Forward a port, expose a Unix socket over TCP, or the reverse.
- Debugging. Talk to a service by hand to see what it sends.
On CoreDesktop
socat is installed from pacman. CoreDesktop’s AI agent sandbox uses it to connect Hermes Agent to its gateway through a local socket. Type socat in a terminal to use it yourself. update keeps it current with the pacman packages.