[Openmcl-devel] *multiprocessing-socket-io*

[Ralf Stoye]

Hi,

i think my post from 29. Oktober 2007 ("*multiprocessing-socket-io*  
and implications") either has been overlooked,
or didn't made sense for anyone, i'll repeat it here, maybe someone  
can comment on it.

Setting  ccl::*multiprocessing-socket-io* to nil provides some benefits
(see mail from Gary Byers from 13. Mai 2005 14:29:32 MESZ),
but it is problematic in connection with threads which are blocked  
during ccl:accept-connection:
If you kill a process blocked by ccl:accept-connection the socket
stays open (read: is not closed even when closed in an unwind-protect  
form)
until the next connection arrives and even after that, we have
an orphaned connection in state "CLOSE_WAIT" (seen with netstat). I
noticed the problem by using some http-server packages: Since they
kill their listening processes, none of them is able to stop and
restart the service when ccl::*multiprocessing-socket-io* is nil,
since the port is "already in use" (caused by the unclosed socket).
I got around this by modifying the "wait" clause in ccl::socket-accept  
to resemble the behavior of the T clause
(change socket  options to include #$O_NONBLOCK before calling with- 
eagain... ).
But i am shure this isn't the right way.

Here is a typical "usecase" from hunchentoot, running a  
(listening-)process with the following code:

(unwind-protect
      (progn
        (setf socket (ccl:make-socket ...))
        (loop (funcall function (ccl:accept-connection socket :wait  
t))))
   (when socket
     (cl:ignore-errors (close socket))))

I have little to no experience writing socket-code on a lower level  
and i think that i have two conflicting demands:
   a) let the thread block on this socket operation (on a system layer)
   b) be able to kill this process and close the socket
so maybe i can state a more concrete question:

Is there any way to close a socket, when its thread is blocked during  
ccl:accept-connection (really in socket-accept),
assuming  ccl::*multiprocessing-socket-io*  is nil.
Or is it possible to change the socketoptions when a connection  
arrives (make it blocking?)

Sure there is a very easy solution: let *multiprocessing-socket-io* be  
T,
but i think this isn't "The Right Thing" either.


Thanks,
Ralf Stoye