From owner-freebsd-stable Sun Mar 19 0:27:14 2000 Delivered-To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Received: from salmon.maths.tcd.ie (salmon.maths.tcd.ie [134.226.81.11]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 143C737B528 for ; Sun, 19 Mar 2000 00:27:09 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from dwmalone@maths.tcd.ie) Received: from walton.maths.tcd.ie by salmon.maths.tcd.ie with SMTP id ; 19 Mar 2000 08:27:06 +0000 (GMT) Date: Sun, 19 Mar 2000 08:27:06 +0000 From: David Malone To: "Art Neilson, WH7N" Cc: stable@freebsd.org Subject: Re: net.inet.tcp.always_keepalive: 1 Message-ID: <20000319082706.A67837@walton.maths.tcd.ie> References: <3.0.6.32.20000318074032.00916500@pilikia.hi.net> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Mailer: Mutt 1.0.1i In-Reply-To: <3.0.6.32.20000318074032.00916500@pilikia.hi.net>; from art@pilikia.hi.net on Sat, Mar 18, 2000 at 07:40:32AM -1000 Sender: owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG On Sat, Mar 18, 2000 at 07:40:32AM -1000, Art Neilson, WH7N wrote: > I've been running 3.4-Stable for a while now and finally updated my > /etc/defaults/rc.conf from /usr/src/etc/defaults/rc.conf. I noticed > the new sysctl toggles in the conf file, and was wondering what this one > in particular did? I thought keepalive packets were for systems connected > up to providers who whould time them out if they had no activity for x > length of time. The comment here seems to indicate it is for cleanup > of dead connections. Can someone enlighten me or point me to relevant doc? If you have tcp keepalives on, the tcp stack will periodically check that the machine at the other end of an idle tcp connection is still there. If it has gone away it will shut down the connection. There are other sysctl settings which control how long a tcp connection must be idle before it is checked, and how many checks are done before the connection is shut down. David. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-stable" in the body of the message