A Unixy approach to WebSockets

In plain words

Websocketd enables developers to build WebSocket applications by connecting standard Unix programs to web clients. It treats WebSockets like Unix pipes, allowing any command-line tool or script to communicate bidirectionally with browsers. The tool is designed for developers who want to leverage existing Unix utilities and simple scripts for real-time web communication without writing complex server code.

written from the facts on this page · September 2026

From the sources

websocketd is a single binary that wraps a command-line program and serves it over a WebSocket. Your program reads lines from stdin and writes lines to stdout. No library, no framework, no change to your code. It reads lines from stdin and writes lines to stdout. It does not import anything and it does not know a WebSocket exists. Every browser that connects gets its own copy of your program. Connections are fully isolated and share nothing. Bash, Python, Ruby, Node, PHP, Perl, C, Go. If you can run it from a shell, you can serve it. Examples in every language → It is CGI’s idea, applied to WebSockets. How the process model works → Start the server with --devconsole and open…from websocketd.com

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