Re: Sockets question...

[David Gibbs <david@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 05:43 PM 7/29/2002, you wrote:
>I am using an RPG server socket and a Java client socket for inter-program
>communications.  It is F-A-S-T!  I have several socket servers running on
>the 400 (in RPG).  My clients will try the first socket.  If that socket is
>available, it will use that socket.  If that socket is not open, it will go
>to the next socket server and test it.  Here is my problem.  The time it
>takes trying to connect to a server that is not running is too long.  Is
>there any way to shorten the time for a connect timeout?

I'm doing the same thing at work ... you're right, it is quite fast... and
a lot easier than I thought it would be (the java part is super simple).

Question: when you are referring to the first socket, and the next socket
(in your message), are you talking about ports?

Strictly speaking, your RPG program should have a single program that
listens to the port (I call it a monitor) and, when it receives a
connection, it should hand the connection off to another program (a
daemon).  The daemon's should be self replicating (when one is consumed,
another should be spawned).

Since all the monitor program does is listen for connections and hand them
off, it's very very fast and there should never be a situation when you
experience a timeout.

The monitor program hands the socket to the daemon via the "GiveDescriptor"
api, and the daemon gets the socket via the "TakeDescriptor" api (I'm not
100% sure on the names of the API).

Scott Klements sockets tutorial covers this in chapter 7, at
http://klement.dstorm.net/rpg/socktut/spawnserver.html.

david