TCP shutdown problems

Dave Kristol ([email protected])
Tue, 16 May 1995 14:14:47 +0500


I've written my own Web server. (Doesn't everyone? :-) Unlike the
public domain servers I've seen, I don't time out sends (in response to
GET, for example).

I've observed that my server process sometimes hangs after a
transaction is complete, waiting for a TCP connection to shut down.
(On Unix systems, in the close() following shutdown().) I've looked at
the logs to try to associate this failing with particular client
programs or operating systems or remote hosts, but it seems pretty
general.

For now I've been forced to timeout the shutdown after 10 minutes. But
I suspect there's an OS bug (on my side?: SGI IRIX 5.2) in the area of
connection shutdown. (I believe the send timeout on the other servers
handles this problem along the way.)

Can anyone shed any light on the problem and/or its solution?
Dave Kristol