Re: TCP server: How to reject connections when busy?

[JavaFan]

From man listen:

       The  backlog  parameter defines the maximum length the queue of
+ pending
       connections may grow to.  If a  connection  request  arrives  w
+ith  the
       queue  full the client may receive an error with an indication 
+of ECON-
       NREFUSED or, if the underlying protocol  supports  retransmissi
+on,  the
       request may be ignored so that retries succeed.

So, it looks like connection request are just ignored (as TCP does support retransmission).

[squirrel]

Thanks - that seems to be what is happening, but it differs from what some of the perl docs say. eg:
http://perldoc.perl.org/perlipc.html#Sockets%3a-Client%2fServer-Communication

"Listen The Listen parameter is set to the maximum number of pending connections we can accept until we turn away incoming clients. Think of it as a call-waiting queue for your telephone. "

or

http://docstore.mik.ua/orelly/perl/cookbook/ch17_03.htm

The numeric argument to listen is the number of un accept ed connections that the operating system should queue before clients start getting "connection refused" errors.

[JavaFan]

I just did a perldoc -f listen, which refers to man 2 listen.

[andal]

Don't rely on this part. Different implementations behave differently. For example Linux treats backlog parameter 0 as 3. In either case, when the queue is full, then the system simply stops answering SYN packets, which triggers their resending. As result, the peer gets no indication that your server is busy. It simply keeps waiting for connection to be established.