===== Curated practical uses for socat, a whole TCP/UDP/UNIXSOCK relay tool =====

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==== 1. Connect a remote mysql UNIX socket to the localhost ====

<code bash>
# 192.168.100.5 => remote mysql server
# anyIPreachable => your host

# first, on remote server, run
socat TCP-LISTEN:3307,reuseaddr,fork UNIX-CONNECT:/var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock &

# optionally, on your localhost, run an ssh tunnel
# (to add encryption to the communication)
ssh -L 3307:127.0.0.1:3307 192.168.100.5

# then on your localhost, run this:
# (use 127.0.0.1 if ssh tunnel, 192.168.100.5 (the remote server IP) otherwise)
socat UNIX-LISTEN:/var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock,fork,reuseaddr,unlink-early,user=mysql,group=mysql,mode=777 TCP:192.168.100.5:3307 &

## now you can do `mysql` client on localhost and run sql commands :)

</code>

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==== 2. Create a **simple network-based TCP logging** endpoint ====
<code bash>
socat -u TCP4-LISTEN:3334,reuseaddr,fork OPEN:/tmp/test.log,creat,append &
</code>

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==== 3. Create a HTTP -> HTTPS proxy for certificate errors when unsupported. ====
<code bash>
# creates an http server at 127.0.0.1:8008 that proxies to https
socat TCP4-LISTEN:8008,reuseaddr,fork openssl:185.93.2.243:443,verify=0
</code>

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==== Sources: ====

https://www.redhat.com/sysadmin/getting-started-socat