Thread: How do I check if the connection is still alive?

Hi there,

I'm wondering is there a function out there that would tell if the socket connection is still alive(or connected).


basically I use some of this to connect to the other "station" ( don't know if these code below would help,but I just want you to know)

Code:

gethostbyname(HOST)
//..............
clientService.sin_addr=*((struct in_addr*)h->h_addr);	 	/* IP address for hostname */
clientService.sin_port = htons("4040");			/* smtp port */
clientService.sin_family = AF_INET;  			/* internet */
//................
ConnectSocket = socket(AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, 0);
connect( ConnectSocket, (struct sockaddr*) &clientService, sizeof(struct sockaddr) )
//...................

Currently the programs works fine,it is able to retreive and process message from the other "station" (w/c acts a workspaceserver).
The problem is that when I disconnect my pc from the network (by pulling out the network cable), the program still run as if it is still connected to the other "station".

How do I check if the connection is still alive?

Regards,
Jaro

Presumably you later have a loop somewhere that checks for new data?

If the connection is closed by the other end, you'll get an EOF on read() (it returns 0). On the other hand, if you try to write you'll get a return of -1 and EPIPE and the process will receive a SIGPIPE.

In the case of your "pull out the network cable" scenario. TCP/IP has no in-built mechanism for detecting this (a TCP/IP stream with no data transfer results in no packets at all, ever), so you'd have to keep sending a "are you alive" type message, and wait for a reply or a socket error.

thanks for the reply.
appreciate it alot