Can I connect a UNIX socket as STDIN for processing in bash?

You can use socat:

socat -T 3 unix-connect:/var/run/input.sock stdout | command

      

        
        
        
      

    

Installing socat:

CentOS:

sudo yum --enablerepo epel install socat

      

        
        
        
      

    

Ubuntu:

sudo apt-get install socat

      

        
        
        
      

    

Additional Information:

http://www.dest-unreach.org/socat/doc/socat.html

http://technostuff.blogspot.com/2008/10/some-useful-socat-commands.html