Are you genuinely asking for a technical definition of 'port' in the TCP/UDP/IP context? Or is it rhetorical? Because the last time I offered a reply to a woman on the subject 50 people jumped on me for 'mansplaining' despite it being asked, and being an expert on the subject
You’re explaining me things I already know but you’re answering different questions. I know specs exist. How are they *implemented*
-
-
Ports are essentially post office boxes. When the kernel receives a packet, it sorts the packet to the correct buffer by port number. If a program has informed the kernel it wants to listen on that port, then the kernel also wakes that program up to let it read the packet
-
A metaphor is not a formal definition
-
Fair. Would "it's a persistent identifier that enables routing within a machine" be what you're looking for? There's not a lot to formally define; they're routing numbers that, unlike IP addresses, don't require negotiation or cooperation between systems
End of conversation
New conversation -
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.