dcsimg

What does the Socket method setSoLinger() do and when should I use it?

Created May 4, 2012

Richard Raszka

The SO_LINGER option is used to specify how the close() method affects socket using a connection-oriented protocol (i.e. TCP/IP, not UDP). A good reference for this option is UNIX Network Programming, 2nd Edition, by W. Richard Stevens, pp.187-191.

On invoking the close() method, there are several things that can happen, depending on the state of SO_LINGER:

Linger set to false (default)
No more receives or sends can be issued on the socket. The contents of the socket send buffer are sent to the other end. Data in socket receive buffer is discarded. The close() method returns immediately, performing these activities in the background.

Linger set to true and linger time==0
No more receives or sends can be issued on the socket. The socket send and receive buffers are both discarded. This means that if the OS has data internally for the socket this data is not sent and not received by the other end. The close() method returns immediately and clears the send buffer in background.

Linger set to true and linger time!=0
No more receives or sends can be issued on the socket. Data in socket send buffer is sent and data in the receive buffer is discarded. If the linger time expires an exception will occur. The close() method will block for a maximum of linger seconds or until data has been sent and acknowledged at the TCP level.

The default scenario doesn't guarantee that the data is delivered if, for example, you have a machine crash; as far as you know the return from the close() implies that data has been sent at the application level. However, if the remote machine crashes then the data in the send buffer may be lost. The third scenario above provides this mechanism by returning from the close() only when the data has been sent by the system, so you can guarantee that data has been delivered (unless an exception occurs). However, this can be achieved equally as well by performing an application acknowledge without the use of this low-level technique and I would recommend that.

The second scenario would be used in the event that you wish to terminate the connection to the client immediately without sending data.