socket stays bound after program terminates

I'm having a strange issue with sockets in a server program.

The server is run from the command line, and begins listening on a socket. when connections come in, the process forks and the child handles the connection. the child closes its copy of the listening socket, and the parent closes its copy of the client socket. the problem I am having is that, if a connection comes in, and then I kill the server program and restart it, it cannot bind to the port for about 30 seconds after I kill it. it would seem to me that it would go away immediately, and I could bind to that port again immediately after the process ends.

never mind... I found the problem. I had to call setsockopt() with option SO_REUSEADDR set.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Elkvis

never mind... I found the problem. I had to call setsockopt() with option SO_REUSEADDR set.

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This gets people all the time. Good on you that you caught it.

interesting new problem... even with the SO_REUSEADDR flag set, it won't release the port. I'm really getting confused now.

Code:

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int on = 1;
setsockopt(sock, SOL_SOCKET, SO_REUSEADDR, &on, sizeof(on));

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am I doing something wrong here? I'm calling setsockopt on both the listening and client sockets.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Elkvis

interesting new problem... even with the SO_REUSEADDR flag set, it won't release the port. I'm really getting confused now.

Code:

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int on = 1;
setsockopt(sock, SOL_SOCKET, SO_REUSEADDR, &on, sizeof(on));

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am I doing something wrong here? I'm calling setsockopt on both the listening and client sockets.

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What do you mean by "it?" The kernel? True -- it will not release the port. However, SO_REUSEADDR will allow you to re-bind in spite of this.

This is a fundamental feature of the TCP/IP protocols. You can't change it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by brewbuck

What do you mean by "it?" The kernel? True -- it will not release the port. However, SO_REUSEADDR will allow you to re-bind in spite of this.

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except that killing the program and then re-starting it still throws the error of not being able to bind to the port, in spite of the SO_REUSEADDR flag being set.

just out of curiosity, why would the kernel need to keep the port bound for so long after the program exits? it seems to be about 60 seconds after termination.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Elkvis

except that killing the program and then re-starting it still throws the error of not being able to bind to the port, in spite of the SO_REUSEADDR flag being set.

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That shouldn't be happening. I'd need to see the exact code.

Quote:

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just out of curiosity, why would the kernel need to keep the port bound for so long after the program exits? it seems to be about 60 seconds after termination.

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To prevent a possible race condition where a packet from an older connection is mistakenly directed to a new one. I do not remember the details, but I'm sure Google can find it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by brewbuck

That shouldn't be happening. I'd need to see the exact code.

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I'll post it tomorrow when I get to the office.

I figured out the problem. I was calling bind before setsockopt. I switched them around and it solved the whole problem.