Why does Cardano use an IPC file and not just a port?

[gilescope]

Why does Cardano use an IPC file and not a normal port like everyone else? This is for containerisation rather than bare metal. But I'd like to understand if there's some reason for this as it is a bit of an unfortunate choice at times. As my housemate says it makes Cardano "a bit of an odd duck"

[HeinrichApfelmus]

I can't speak for the original API designers, but the reason is likely access control: socket files are subject to the permission model of the file system, while ports are typically open to everyone.

If you really need a TCP port on top of a socket file: SSH port / socket forwarding allows you to map a socket to a port and vice-versa. See the -L option in https://man.openbsd.org/ssh.

See also this answer to the SO question "Why doesn't Linux allow user-level network port permissions?".

[karknu]

I can't speak for the original API designers, but the reason is likely access control: socket files are subject to the permission model of the file system, while ports are typically open to everyone.

If you really need a TCP port on top of a socket file: SSH port / socket forwarding allows you to map a socket to a port and vice-versa. See the -L option in https://man.openbsd.org/ssh.

See also this answer to the SO question "Why doesn't Linux allow user-level network port permissions?".

Yes, this is due to access control.
It means that the cardano-node's NodeToClient interface is only accessible locally by the same user that runs cardano-node.

[ozgb]

As an example in another project, Docker allows you to expose the daemon via a TCP port, but it has a warning on the configuration page:
https://docs.docker.com/engine/daemon/remote-access/

[gilescope]

Thank you - makes sense now.

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