[e2e] tcp connection timeout

[Daniel Stutzbach]

On Thu, Mar 09, 2006 at 09:19:29PM -0800, Joe Touch wrote:
> >> The FIN_WAIT_2 results in kept state until a new connection is tried
> >> that collides.
> > 
> > That could be a very long time indeed.
> 
> The point is that it doesn't matter. The state gets cleaned up ONLY when
> it interferes with a new connection. Cleaning up old state isn't part of
> how TCP is designed.

RFCs or no, most real-world TCP implementations do exit FIN_WAIT_2
after a timeout.  Windows, Linux, OpenBSD, NetBSD, FreeBSD, and
Solaris all do it.  

-- 
Daniel Stutzbach                           Computer Science Ph.D Student
http://www.barsoom.org/~agthorr                     University of Oregon