Re: [PATCH] TCP_FAILFAST: a new socket option to timeout/abort a connection quicker

[Eric Dumazet <eric.dumazet@gmail.com>]

Le lundi 23 août 2010 à 23:20 -0700, H.K. Jerry Chu a écrit :
> From: Jerry Chu <hkchu@google.com>
> 
> This is a TCP level socket option that takes an unsigned int to specify
> how long in ms TCP should resend a lost data packet before giving up
> and returning ETIMEDOUT. The normal TCP retry/abort timeout limit still
> applies. In other words this option is only meant for those applications
> that need to "fail faster" than the default TCP timeout. The latter
> may take upto 20 minutes in a normal WAN environment.
> 
> The option is disabled (by default) when set to 0. Also it does not
> apply during the connection establishment phase.
> 
> Signed-off-by: H.K. Jerry Chu <hkchu@google.com>

TCP_FAILFAST might be misleading. It reads as a boolean option, while
its an option to cap the timeout, with a time unit, instead of the usual
"number of retransmits".

Its also funny you dont ask for a default value, given by a sysctl
tunable ;)