(For discussion on porting software to other computer systems, see: Porting)

A Software Port (usually just called a 'port') is a virtual data connection that can be used by programs to exchange data directly, instead of going through a file or other temporary storage location. The most common of these are TCP and UDP ports which are used to exchange data between computers on the Internet.

In Flow-based programming, a 'port' is a (named) point of contact between a process and a connection.

See also

• Computer port (hardware)
• TCP and UDP port
• List of TCP and UDP port numbers