Re: Sockets - Multiple Connections?

Hello Joe,

As previously mentioned, I have a sockets server program running using Scott
Klement's SOCKUTIL service program.

Can you be more specific? I wrote lots of different things over the years that I referred to as "SOCKUTIL". I don't use any of them anymore.

What does SOCKUTIL do? Are you just using it for FD_SET, FD_ZERO, FD_ISSET, FD_CLR?

During testing, an issue has come up and I am not sure if it is
"normal" or not. The issue is that I sometimes see multiple
connections from the remote IP. When this happens, the sender usually tells me that there are documents "stuck" in their outbound
queue. If I kill the program and restart, then I receive the
documents.

How does your server code work? Does it spawn a new job for every client? Does it multiplex? Does it use INETD?

Here are my questions - Is this a case where I need to follows Scott's
server example that uses "select() for multiplexing"?

Maybe? Maybe not? Not enough information.

Or, is it a case where the sender is stopping and starting their
client and my process is stuck on the first connection. If this is
the case and multiplexing is not the answer, what is the proper way
to handle?

I really don't feel qualified to answer that question at this point. I'm neither that familiar with your situation, nor that familiar with what you are already doing now.

Personally, I would avoid multiplexing unless you absolutely need it to share information between sockets. Such as a chat application. If you can get by with a spawning application, use that. It's much easier to write and maintain. (Or use inetd which does the spawning for you.)

For most simple TCP/IP applications, I'd just use inetd.