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TCP(7) Linux Programmer's Manual TCP(7)
tcp - TCP protocol
#include <sys/socket.h>
#include <netinet/in.h>
#include <netinet/tcp.h>
tcp_socket = socket(AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, 0);
This is an implementation of the TCP protocol defined in RFC 793, RFC 1122 and
RFC 2001 with the NewReno and SACK extensions. It provides a reliable,
stream-oriented, full-duplex connection between two sockets on top of ip(7),
for both v4 and v6 versions. TCP guarantees that the data arrives in order
and retransmits lost packets. It generates and checks a per-packet checksum
to catch transmission errors. TCP does not preserve record boundaries.
A newly created TCP socket has no remote or local address and is not fully
specified. To create an outgoing TCP connection use connect(2) to establish a
connection to another TCP socket. To receive new incoming connections, first
bind(2) the socket to a local address and port and then call listen(2) to put
the socket into the listening state. After that a new socket for each
incoming connection can be accepted using accept(2). A socket which has had
accept(2) or connect(2) successfully called on it is fully specified and may
transmit data. Data cannot be transmitted on listening or not yet connected
sockets.
Linux supports RFC 1323 TCP high performance extensions. These include
Protection Against Wrapped Sequence Numbers (PAWS), Window Scaling and
Timestamps. Window scaling allows the use of large (> 64K) TCP windows in
order to support links with high latency or bandwidth. To make use of them,
the send and receive buffer sizes must be increased. They can be set globally
with the /proc/sys/net/ipv4/tcp_wmem and /proc/sys/net/ipv4/tcp_rmem files, or
on individual sockets by using the SO_SNDBUF and SO_RCVBUF socket options with
the setsockopt(2) call.
The maximum sizes for socket buffers declared via the SO_SNDBUF and SO_RCVBUF
mechanisms are limited by the values in the /proc/sys/net/core/rmem_max and
/proc/sys/net/core/wmem_max files. Note that TCP actually allocates twice the
size of the buffer requested in the setsockopt(2) call, and so a succeeding
getsockopt(2) call will not return the same size of buffer as requested in the
setsockopt(2) call. TCP uses the extra space for administrative purposes and
internal kernel structures, and the /proc file values reflect the larger sizes
compared to the actual TCP windows. On individual connections, the socket
buffer size must be set prior to the listen(2) or connect(2) calls in order to
have it take effect. See socket(7) for more information.
TCP supports urgent data. Urgent data is used to signal the receiver that
some important message is part of the data stream and that it should be
processed as soon as possible. To send urgent data specify the MSG_OOB option
to send(2). When urgent data is received, the kernel sends a SIGURG signal to
the process or process group that has been set as the socket "owner" using the
SIOCSPGRP or FIOSETOWN ioctls (or the POSIX.1-2001-specified fcntl(2) F_SETOWN
operation). When the SO_OOBINLINE socket option is enabled, urgent data is
put into the normal data stream (a program can test for its location using the
SIOCATMARK ioctl described below), otherwise it can be only received when the
MSG_OOB flag is set for recv(2) or recvmsg(2).
Linux 2.4 introduced a number of changes for improved throughput and scaling,
as well as enhanced functionality. Some of these features include support for
zero-copy sendfile(2), Explicit Congestion Notification, new management of
TIME_WAIT sockets, keep-alive socket options and support for Duplicate SACK
extensions.
TCP is built on top of IP (see ip(7)). The address formats defined by ip(7)
apply to TCP. TCP only supports point-to-point communication; broadcasting
and multicasting are not supported.
System-wide TCP parameter settings can be accessed by files in the directory
/proc/sys/net/ipv4/. In addition, most IP /proc interfaces also apply to TCP;
see ip(7). Variables described as Boolean take an integer value, with a
nonzero value ("true") meaning that the corresponding option is enabled, and a
zero value ("false") meaning that the option is disabled.
tcp_abc (Integer; default: 0; since Linux 2.6.15)
Control the Appropriate Byte Count (ABC), defined in RFC 3465. ABC is
a way of increasing the congestion window (cwnd) more slowly in
response to partial acknowledgments. Possible values are:
0 increase cwnd once per acknowledgment (no ABC)
1 increase cwnd once per acknowledgment of full sized segment
2 allow increase cwnd by two if acknowledgment is of two segments to
compensate for delayed acknowledgments.
tcp_abort_on_overflow (Boolean; default: disabled; since Linux 2.4)
Enable resetting connections if the listening service is too slow and
unable to keep up and accept them. It means that if overflow occurred
due to a burst, the connection will recover. Enable this option only
if you are really sure that the listening daemon cannot be tuned to
accept connections faster. Enabling this option can harm the clients
of your server.
tcp_adv_win_scale (integer; default: 2; since Linux 2.4)
Count buffering overhead as bytes/2^tcp_adv_win_scale, if
tcp_adv_win_scale is greater than 0; or bytes-
bytes/2^(-tcp_adv_win_scale), if tcp_adv_win_scale is less than or
equal to zero.
The socket receive buffer space is shared between the application and
kernel. TCP maintains part of the buffer as the TCP window, this is
the size of the receive window advertised to the other end. The rest
of the space is used as the "application" buffer, used to isolate the
network from scheduling and application latencies. The
tcp_adv_win_scale default value of 2 implies that the space used for
the application buffer is one fourth that of the total.
tcp_allowed_congestion_control (String; default: see text; since Linux 2.4.20)
Show/set the congestion control algorithm choices available to
unprivileged processes (see the description of the TCP_CONGESTION
socket option). The list is a subset of those listed in
tcp_available_congestion_control. The default value for this list is
"reno" plus the default setting of tcp_congestion_control.
tcp_available_congestion_control (String; read-only; since Linux 2.4.20)
Show a list of the congestion-control algorithms that are registered.
This list is a limiting set for the list in
tcp_allowed_congestion_control. More congestion-control algorithms may
be available as modules, but not loaded.
tcp_app_win (integer; default: 31; since Linux 2.4)
This variable defines how many bytes of the TCP window are reserved for
buffering overhead.
A maximum of (window/2^tcp_app_win, mss) bytes in the window are
reserved for the application buffer. A value of 0 implies that no
amount is reserved.
tcp_base_mss (Integer; default: 512; since Linux 2.6.17)
The initial value of search_low to be used by the packetization layer
Path MTU discovery (MTU probing). If MTU probing is enabled, this is
the initial MSS used by the connection.
tcp_bic (Boolean; default: disabled; Linux 2.4.27/2.6.6 to 2.6.13)
Enable BIC TCP congestion control algorithm. BIC-TCP is a sender-side
only change that ensures a linear RTT fairness under large windows
while offering both scalability and bounded TCP-friendliness. The
protocol combines two schemes called additive increase and binary
search increase. When the congestion window is large, additive
increase with a large increment ensures linear RTT fairness as well as
good scalability. Under small congestion windows, binary search
increase provides TCP friendliness.
tcp_bic_low_window (integer; default: 14; Linux 2.4.27/2.6.6 to 2.6.13)
Set the threshold window (in packets) where BIC TCP starts to adjust
the congestion window. Below this threshold BIC TCP behaves the same
as the default TCP Reno.
tcp_bic_fast_convergence (Boolean; default: enabled; Linux 2.4.27/2.6.6 to
2.6.13)
Force BIC TCP to more quickly respond to changes in congestion window.
Allows two flows sharing the same connection to converge more rapidly.
tcp_congestion_control (String; default: see text; since Linux 2.4.13)
Set the default congestion-control algorithm to be used for new
connections. The algorithm "reno" is always available, but additional
choices may be available depending on kernel configuration. The
default value for this file is set as part of kernel configuration.
tcp_dma_copybreak (integer; default: 4096; since Linux 2.6.24)
Lower limit, in bytes, of the size of socket reads that will be
offloaded to a DMA copy engine, if one is present in the system and the
kernel was configured with the CONFIG_NET_DMA option.
tcp_dsack (Boolean; default: enabled; since Linux 2.4)
Enable RFC 2883 TCP Duplicate SACK support.
tcp_ecn (Boolean; default: disabled; since Linux 2.4)
Enable RFC 2884 Explicit Congestion Notification. When enabled,
connectivity to some destinations could be affected due to older,
misbehaving routers along the path causing connections to be dropped.
tcp_fack (Boolean; default: enabled; since Linux 2.2)
Enable TCP Forward Acknowledgement support.
tcp_fin_timeout (integer; default: 60; since Linux 2.2)
This specifies how many seconds to wait for a final FIN packet before
the socket is forcibly closed. This is strictly a violation of the TCP
specification, but required to prevent denial-of-service attacks. In
Linux 2.2, the default value was 180.
tcp_frto (integer; default: 0; since Linux 2.4.21/2.6)
Enable F-RTO, an enhanced recovery algorithm for TCP retransmission
timeouts (RTOs). It is particularly beneficial in wireless
environments where packet loss is typically due to random radio
interference rather than intermediate router congestion. See RFC 4138
for more details.
This file can have one of the following values:
0 Disabled.
1 The basic version F-RTO algorithm is enabled.
2 Enable SACK-enhanced F-RTO if flow uses SACK. The basic version can
be used also when SACK is in use though in that case scenario(s)
exists where F-RTO interacts badly with the packet counting of the
SACK-enabled TCP flow.
Before Linux 2.6.22, this parameter was a Boolean value, supporting
just values 0 and 1 above.
tcp_frto_response (integer; default: 0; since Linux 2.6.22)
When F-RTO has detected that a TCP retransmission timeout was spurious
(i.e, the timeout would have been avoided had TCP set a longer
retransmission timeout), TCP has several options concerning what to do
next. Possible values are:
0 Rate halving based; a smooth and conservative response, results in
halved congestion window (cwnd) and slow-start threshold (ssthresh)
after one RTT.
1 Very conservative response; not recommended because even though
being valid, it interacts poorly with the rest of Linux TCP; halves
cwnd and ssthresh immediately.
2 Aggressive response; undoes congestion-control measures that are now
known to be unnecessary (ignoring the possibility of a lost
retransmission that would require TCP to be more cautious); cwnd and
ssthresh are restored to the values prior to timeout.
tcp_keepalive_intvl (integer; default: 75; since Linux 2.4)
The number of seconds between TCP keep-alive probes.
tcp_keepalive_probes (integer; default: 9; since Linux 2.2)
The maximum number of TCP keep-alive probes to send before giving up
and killing the connection if no response is obtained from the other
end.
tcp_keepalive_time (integer; default: 7200; since Linux 2.2)
The number of seconds a connection needs to be idle before TCP begins
sending out keep-alive probes. Keep-alives are only sent when the
SO_KEEPALIVE socket option is enabled. The default value is 7200
seconds (2 hours). An idle connection is terminated after
approximately an additional 11 minutes (9 probes an interval of 75
seconds apart) when keep-alive is enabled.
Note that underlying connection tracking mechanisms and application
timeouts may be much shorter.
tcp_low_latency (Boolean; default: disabled; since Linux 2.4.21/2.6)
If enabled, the TCP stack makes decisions that prefer lower latency as
opposed to higher throughput. It this option is disabled, then higher
throughput is preferred. An example of an application where this
default should be changed would be a Beowulf compute cluster.
tcp_max_orphans (integer; default: see below; since Linux 2.4)
The maximum number of orphaned (not attached to any user file handle)
TCP sockets allowed in the system. When this number is exceeded, the
orphaned connection is reset and a warning is printed. This limit
exists only to prevent simple denial-of-service attacks. Lowering this
limit is not recommended. Network conditions might require you to
increase the number of orphans allowed, but note that each orphan can
eat up to ~64K of unswappable memory. The default initial value is set
equal to the kernel parameter NR_FILE. This initial default is
adjusted depending on the memory in the system.
tcp_max_syn_backlog (integer; default: see below; since Linux 2.2)
The maximum number of queued connection requests which have still not
received an acknowledgement from the connecting client. If this number
is exceeded, the kernel will begin dropping requests. The default
value of 256 is increased to 1024 when the memory present in the system
is adequate or greater (>= 128Mb), and reduced to 128 for those systems
with very low memory (<= 32Mb). It is recommended that if this needs
to be increased above 1024, TCP_SYNQ_HSIZE in include/net/tcp.h be
modified to keep TCP_SYNQ_HSIZE*16<=tcp_max_syn_backlog, and the kernel
be recompiled.
tcp_max_tw_buckets (integer; default: see below; since Linux 2.4)
The maximum number of sockets in TIME_WAIT state allowed in the system.
This limit exists only to prevent simple denial-of-service attacks.
The default value of NR_FILE*2 is adjusted depending on the memory in
the system. If this number is exceeded, the socket is closed and a
warning is printed.
tcp_moderate_rcvbuf (Boolean; default: enabled; since Linux 2.4.17/2.6.7)
If enabled, TCP performs receive buffer auto-tuning, attempting to
automatically size the buffer (no greater than tcp_rmem[2]) to match
the size required by the path for full throughput.
tcp_mem (since Linux 2.4)
This is a vector of 3 integers: [low, pressure, high]. These bounds,
measured in units of the system page size, are used by TCP to track its
memory usage. The defaults are calculated at boot time from the amount
of available memory. (TCP can only use low memory for this, which is
limited to around 900 megabytes on 32-bit systems. 64-bit systems do
not suffer this limitation.)
low TCP doesn't regulate its memory allocation when the number of
pages it has allocated globally is below this number.
pressure When the amount of memory allocated by TCP exceeds this
number of pages, TCP moderates its memory consumption. This
memory pressure state is exited once the number of pages
allocated falls below the low mark.
high The maximum number of pages, globally, that TCP will
allocate. This value overrides any other limits imposed by
the kernel.
tcp_mtu_probing (integer; default: 0; since Linux 2.6.17)
This parameter controls TCP Packetization-Layer Path MTU Discovery.
The following values may be assigned to the file:
0 Disabled
1 Disabled by default, enabled when an ICMP black hole detected
2 Always enabled, use initial MSS of tcp_base_mss.
tcp_no_metrics_save (Boolean; default: disabled; since Linux 2.6.6)
By default, TCP saves various connection metrics in the route cache
when the connection closes, so that connections established in the near
future can use these to set initial conditions. Usually, this
increases overall performance, but it may sometimes cause performance
degradation. If tcp_no_metrics_save is enabled, TCP will not cache
metrics on closing connections.
tcp_orphan_retries (integer; default: 8; since Linux 2.4)
The maximum number of attempts made to probe the other end of a
connection which has been closed by our end.
tcp_reordering (integer; default: 3; since Linux 2.4)
The maximum a packet can be reordered in a TCP packet stream without
TCP assuming packet loss and going into slow start. It is not
advisable to change this number. This is a packet reordering detection
metric designed to minimize unnecessary back off and retransmits
provoked by reordering of packets on a connection.
tcp_retrans_collapse (Boolean; default: enabled; since Linux 2.2)
Try to send full-sized packets during retransmit.
tcp_retries1 (integer; default: 3; since Linux 2.2)
The number of times TCP will attempt to retransmit a packet on an
established connection normally, without the extra effort of getting
the network layers involved. Once we exceed this number of
retransmits, we first have the network layer update the route if
possible before each new retransmit. The default is the RFC specified
minimum of 3.
tcp_retries2 (integer; default: 15; since Linux 2.2)
The maximum number of times a TCP packet is retransmitted in
established state before giving up. The default value is 15, which
corresponds to a duration of approximately between 13 to 30 minutes,
depending on the retransmission timeout. The RFC 1122 specified
minimum limit of 100 seconds is typically deemed too short.
tcp_rfc1337 (Boolean; default: disabled; since Linux 2.2)
Enable TCP behavior conformant with RFC 1337. When disabled, if a RST
is received in TIME_WAIT state, we close the socket immediately without
waiting for the end of the TIME_WAIT period.
tcp_rmem (since Linux 2.4)
This is a vector of 3 integers: [min, default, max]. These parameters
are used by TCP to regulate receive buffer sizes. TCP dynamically
adjusts the size of the receive buffer from the defaults listed below,
in the range of these values, depending on memory available in the
system.
min minimum size of the receive buffer used by each TCP socket.
The default value is the system page size. (On Linux 2.4,
the default value is 4K, lowered to PAGE_SIZE bytes in low-
memory systems.) This value is used to ensure that in memory
pressure mode, allocations below this size will still
succeed. This is not used to bound the size of the receive
buffer declared using SO_RCVBUF on a socket.
default the default size of the receive buffer for a TCP socket.
This value overwrites the initial default buffer size from
the generic global net.core.rmem_default defined for all
protocols. The default value is 87380 bytes. (On Linux 2.4,
this will be lowered to 43689 in low-memory systems.) If
larger receive buffer sizes are desired, this value should be
increased (to affect all sockets). To employ large TCP
windows, the net.ipv4.tcp_window_scaling must be enabled
(default).
max the maximum size of the receive buffer used by each TCP
socket. This value does not override the global
net.core.rmem_max. This is not used to limit the size of the
receive buffer declared using SO_RCVBUF on a socket. The
default value is calculated using the formula
max(87380, min(4MB, tcp_mem[1]*PAGE_SIZE/128))
(On Linux 2.4, the default is 87380*2 bytes, lowered to 87380
in low-memory systems).
tcp_sack (Boolean; default: enabled; since Linux 2.2)
Enable RFC 2018 TCP Selective Acknowledgements.
tcp_slow_start_after_idle (Boolean; default: enabled; since Linux 2.6.18)
If enabled, provide RFC 2861 behavior and time out the congestion
window after an idle period. An idle period is defined as the current
RTO (retransmission timeout). If disabled, the congestion window will
not be timed out after an idle period.
tcp_stdurg (Boolean; default: disabled; since Linux 2.2)
If this option is enabled, then use the RFC 1122 interpretation of the
TCP urgent-pointer field. According to this interpretation, the urgent
pointer points to the last byte of urgent data. If this option is
disabled, then use the BSD-compatible interpretation of the urgent
pointer: the urgent pointer points to the first byte after the urgent
data. Enabling this option may lead to interoperability problems.
tcp_syn_retries (integer; default: 5; since Linux 2.2)
The maximum number of times initial SYNs for an active TCP connection
attempt will be retransmitted. This value should not be higher than
255. The default value is 5, which corresponds to approximately 180
seconds.
tcp_synack_retries (integer; default: 5; since Linux 2.2)
The maximum number of times a SYN/ACK segment for a passive TCP
connection will be retransmitted. This number should not be higher
than 255.
tcp_syncookies (Boolean; since Linux 2.2)
Enable TCP syncookies. The kernel must be compiled with
CONFIG_SYN_COOKIES. Send out syncookies when the syn backlog queue of
a socket overflows. The syncookies feature attempts to protect a
socket from a SYN flood attack. This should be used as a last resort,
if at all. This is a violation of the TCP protocol, and conflicts with
other areas of TCP such as TCP extensions. It can cause problems for
clients and relays. It is not recommended as a tuning mechanism for
heavily loaded servers to help with overloaded or misconfigured
conditions. For recommended alternatives see tcp_max_syn_backlog,
tcp_synack_retries, and tcp_abort_on_overflow.
tcp_timestamps (Boolean; default: enabled; since Linux 2.2)
Enable RFC 1323 TCP timestamps.
tcp_tso_win_divisor (integer; default: 3; since Linux 2.6.9)
This parameter controls what percentage of the congestion window can be
consumed by a single TCP Segmentation Offload (TSO) frame. The setting
of this parameter is a tradeoff between burstiness and building larger
TSO frames.
tcp_tw_recycle (Boolean; default: disabled; since Linux 2.4)
Enable fast recycling of TIME_WAIT sockets. Enabling this option is
not recommended since this causes problems when working with NAT
(Network Address Translation).
tcp_tw_reuse (Boolean; default: disabled; since Linux 2.4.19/2.6)
Allow to reuse TIME_WAIT sockets for new connections when it is safe
from protocol viewpoint. It should not be changed without
advice/request of technical experts.
tcp_vegas_cong_avoid (Boolean; default: disabled; Linux 2.2 to 2.6.13)
Enable TCP Vegas congestion avoidance algorithm. TCP Vegas is a
sender-side only change to TCP that anticipates the onset of congestion
by estimating the bandwidth. TCP Vegas adjusts the sending rate by
modifying the congestion window. TCP Vegas should provide less packet
loss, but it is not as aggressive as TCP Reno.
tcp_westwood (Boolean; default: disabled; Linux 2.4.26/2.6.3 to 2.6.13)
Enable TCP Westwood+ congestion control algorithm. TCP Westwood+ is a
sender-side only modification of the TCP Reno protocol stack that
optimizes the performance of TCP congestion control. It is based on
end-to-end bandwidth estimation to set congestion window and slow start
threshold after a congestion episode. Using this estimation, TCP
Westwood+ adaptively sets a slow start threshold and a congestion
window which takes into account the bandwidth used at the time
congestion is experienced. TCP Westwood+ significantly increases
fairness with respect to TCP Reno in wired networks and throughput over
wireless links.
tcp_window_scaling (Boolean; default: enabled; since Linux 2.2)
Enable RFC 1323 TCP window scaling. This feature allows the use of a
large window (> 64K) on a TCP connection, should the other end support
it. Normally, the 16 bit window length field in the TCP header limits
the window size to less than 64K bytes. If larger windows are desired,
applications can increase the size of their socket buffers and the
window scaling option will be employed. If tcp_window_scaling is
disabled, TCP will not negotiate the use of window scaling with the
other end during connection setup.
tcp_wmem (since Linux 2.4)
This is a vector of 3 integers: [min, default, max]. These parameters
are used by TCP to regulate send buffer sizes. TCP dynamically adjusts
the size of the send buffer from the default values listed below, in
the range of these values, depending on memory available.
min Minimum size of the send buffer used by each TCP socket. The
default value is the system page size. (On Linux 2.4, the
default value is 4K bytes.) This value is used to ensure
that in memory pressure mode, allocations below this size
will still succeed. This is not used to bound the size of
the send buffer declared using SO_SNDBUF on a socket.
default The default size of the send buffer for a TCP socket. This
value overwrites the initial default buffer size from the
generic global /proc/sys/net/core/wmem_default defined for
all protocols. The default value is 16K bytes. If larger
send buffer sizes are desired, this value should be increased
(to affect all sockets). To employ large TCP windows, the
/proc/sys/net/ipv4/tcp_window_scaling must be set to a
nonzero value (default).
max The maximum size of the send buffer used by each TCP socket.
This value does not override the value in
/proc/sys/net/core/wmem_max. This is not used to limit the
size of the send buffer declared using SO_SNDBUF on a socket.
The default value is calculated using the formula
max(65536, min(4MB, tcp_mem[1]*PAGE_SIZE/128))
(On Linux 2.4, the default value is 128K bytes, lowered 64K
depending on low-memory systems.)
tcp_workaround_signed_windows (Boolean; default: disabled; since Linux 2.6.26)
If enabled, assume that no receipt of a window-scaling option means
that the remote TCP is broken and treats the window as a signed
quantity. If disabled, assume that the remote TCP is not broken even
if we do not receive a window scaling option from it.
To set or get a TCP socket option, call getsockopt(2) to read or setsockopt(2)
to write the option with the option level argument set to IPPROTO_TCP. In
addition, most IPPROTO_IP socket options are valid on TCP sockets. For more
information see ip(7).
TCP_CORK (since Linux 2.2)
If set, don't send out partial frames. All queued partial frames are
sent when the option is cleared again. This is useful for prepending
headers before calling sendfile(2), or for throughput optimization. As
currently implemented, there is a 200 millisecond ceiling on the time
for which output is corked by TCP_CORK. If this ceiling is reached,
then queued data is automatically transmitted. This option can be
combined with TCP_NODELAY only since Linux 2.5.71. This option should
not be used in code intended to be portable.
TCP_DEFER_ACCEPT (since Linux 2.4)
Allow a listener to be awakened only when data arrives on the socket.
Takes an integer value (seconds), this can bound the maximum number of
attempts TCP will make to complete the connection. This option should
not be used in code intended to be portable.
TCP_INFO (since Linux 2.4)
Used to collect information about this socket. The kernel returns a
struct tcp_info as defined in the file /usr/include/linux/tcp.h. This
option should not be used in code intended to be portable.
TCP_KEEPCNT (since Linux 2.4)
The maximum number of keepalive probes TCP should send before dropping
the connection. This option should not be used in code intended to be
portable.
TCP_KEEPIDLE (since Linux 2.4)
The time (in seconds) the connection needs to remain idle before TCP
starts sending keepalive probes, if the socket option SO_KEEPALIVE has
been set on this socket. This option should not be used in code
intended to be portable.
TCP_KEEPINTVL (since Linux 2.4)
The time (in seconds) between individual keepalive probes. This option
should not be used in code intended to be portable.
TCP_LINGER2 (since Linux 2.4)
The lifetime of orphaned FIN_WAIT2 state sockets. This option can be
used to override the system-wide setting in the file
/proc/sys/net/ipv4/tcp_fin_timeout for this socket. This is not to be
confused with the socket(7) level option SO_LINGER. This option should
not be used in code intended to be portable.
TCP_MAXSEG
The maximum segment size for outgoing TCP packets. If this option is
set before connection establishment, it also changes the MSS value
announced to the other end in the initial packet. Values greater than
the (eventual) interface MTU have no effect. TCP will also impose its
minimum and maximum bounds over the value provided.
TCP_NODELAY
If set, disable the Nagle algorithm. This means that segments are
always sent as soon as possible, even if there is only a small amount
of data. When not set, data is buffered until there is a sufficient
amount to send out, thereby avoiding the frequent sending of small
packets, which results in poor utilization of the network. This option
is overridden by TCP_CORK; however, setting this option forces an
explicit flush of pending output, even if TCP_CORK is currently set.
TCP_QUICKACK (since Linux 2.4.4)
Enable quickack mode if set or disable quickack mode if cleared. In
quickack mode, acks are sent immediately, rather than delayed if needed
in accordance to normal TCP operation. This flag is not permanent, it
only enables a switch to or from quickack mode. Subsequent operation
of the TCP protocol will once again enter/leave quickack mode depending
on internal protocol processing and factors such as delayed ack
timeouts occurring and data transfer. This option should not be used
in code intended to be portable.
TCP_SYNCNT (since Linux 2.4)
Set the number of SYN retransmits that TCP should send before aborting
the attempt to connect. It cannot exceed 255. This option should not
be used in code intended to be portable.
TCP_WINDOW_CLAMP (since Linux 2.4)
Bound the size of the advertised window to this value. The kernel
imposes a minimum size of SOCK_MIN_RCVBUF/2. This option should not be
used in code intended to be portable.
TCP provides limited support for out-of-band data, in the form of (a single
byte of) urgent data. In Linux this means if the other end sends newer out-
of-band data the older urgent data is inserted as normal data into the stream
(even when SO_OOBINLINE is not set). This differs from BSD-based stacks.
Linux uses the BSD compatible interpretation of the urgent pointer field by
default. This violates RFC 1122, but is required for interoperability with
other stacks. It can be changed via /proc/sys/net/ipv4/tcp_stdurg.
It is possible to peek at out-of-band data using the recv(2) MSG_PEEK flag.
Since version 2.4, Linux supports the use of MSG_TRUNC in the flags argument
of recv(2) (and recvmsg(2)). This flag causes the received bytes of data to
be discarded, rather than passed back in a caller-supplied buffer. Since
Linux 2.4.4, MSG_PEEK also has this effect when used in conjunction with
MSG_OOB to receive out-of-band data.
The following ioctl(2) calls return information in value. The correct syntax
is:
int value;
error = ioctl(tcp_socket, ioctl_type, &value);
ioctl_type is one of the following:
SIOCINQ
Returns the amount of queued unread data in the receive buffer. The
socket must not be in LISTEN state, otherwise an error (EINVAL) is
returned. SIOCINQ is defined in <linux/sockios.h>. Alternatively, you
can use the synonymous FIONREAD, defined in <sys/ioctl.h>.
SIOCATMARK
Returns true (i.e., value is nonzero) if the inbound data stream is at
the urgent mark.
If the SO_OOBINLINE socket option is set, and SIOCATMARK returns true,
then the next read from the socket will return the urgent data. If the
SO_OOBINLINE socket option is not set, and SIOCATMARK returns true,
then the next read from the socket will return the bytes following the
urgent data (to actually read the urgent data requires the
recv(MSG_OOB) flag).
Note that a read never reads across the urgent mark. If an application
is informed of the presence of urgent data via select(2) (using the
exceptfds argument) or through delivery of a SIGURG signal, then it can
advance up to the mark using a loop which repeatedly tests SIOCATMARK
and performs a read (requesting any number of bytes) as long as
SIOCATMARK returns false.
SIOCOUTQ
Returns the amount of unsent data in the socket send queue. The socket
must not be in LISTEN state, otherwise an error (EINVAL) is returned.
SIOCOUTQ is defined in <linux/sockios.h>. Alternatively, you can use
the synonymous TIOCOUTQ, defined in <sys/ioctl.h>.
When a network error occurs, TCP tries to resend the packet. If it doesn't
succeed after some time, either ETIMEDOUT or the last received error on this
connection is reported.
Some applications require a quicker error notification. This can be enabled
with the IPPROTO_IP level IP_RECVERR socket option. When this option is
enabled, all incoming errors are immediately passed to the user program. Use
this option with care -- it makes TCP less tolerant to routing changes and
other normal network conditions.
EAFNOTSUPPORT
Passed socket address type in sin_family was not AF_INET.
EPIPE The other end closed the socket unexpectedly or a read is executed on a
shut down socket.
ETIMEDOUT
The other end didn't acknowledge retransmitted data after some time.
Any errors defined for ip(7) or the generic socket layer may also be returned
for TCP.
Support for Explicit Congestion Notification, zero-copy sendfile(2),
reordering support and some SACK extensions (DSACK) were introduced in 2.4.
Support for forward acknowledgement (FACK), TIME_WAIT recycling, and per-
connection keepalive socket options were introduced in 2.3.
Not all errors are documented.
IPv6 is not described.
accept(2), bind(2), connect(2), getsockopt(2), listen(2), recvmsg(2),
sendfile(2), sendmsg(2), socket(2), ip(7), socket(7)
RFC 793 for the TCP specification.
RFC 1122 for the TCP requirements and a description of the Nagle algorithm.
RFC 1323 for TCP timestamp and window scaling options.
RFC 1644 for a description of TIME_WAIT assassination hazards.
RFC 3168 for a description of Explicit Congestion Notification.
RFC 2581 for TCP congestion control algorithms.
RFC 2018 and RFC 2883 for SACK and extensions to SACK.
This page is part of release 3.32 of the Linux man-pages project. A
description of the project, and information about reporting bugs, can be found
at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.
Linux 2010-09-10 TCP(7)
HTML rendering created 2010-12-03 by Michael Kerrisk, author of The Linux Programming Interface