The -U option (same as --unixsock) causes Ncat to use Unix domain sockets rather than network sockets. Unix domain sockets exist as an entry in the filesystem. You must give the name of a socket to connect to or to listen on. For example, to make a connection,

ncat -U ~/unixsock

To listen on a socket:

ncat -l -U ~/unixsock

Listen mode will create the socket if it doesn't exist. The socket will continue to exist after the program ends.

Both stream and datagram domain sockets are supported. Use -U on its own for stream sockets, or combine it with --udp for datagram sockets. Datagram sockets require a source socket to connect from. By default, a source socket with a random filename will be created as needed, and deleted when the program ends. Use the --source with a path to use a source socket with a specific name.