Ruby: connection timeout detection for a TCPServer

Question

Hello,

been trying to understand how to implement a timeout detection to a ruby TCP server of mine. Mainly because sometimes clients with instable internet lose connection and i need my server to detect it.

The idea is to teach my server to detect when a connection had been silent for longer than 30 seconds and abort it. I've been trying to use timeout, but it terminates the program, so i need to use something like a simple timer that will just return an integer of seconds passed since the activation of the said timer.

Is there an already made solution for that? Sorry if it is a stupid question, it's just that googling it led me nowhere. ps: using ruby 1.8 here.

Answer 1

The 'Time' object can report the number of seconds past by comparing it to previously created instances. Consider:

require 'time'

t0 = Time.now
sleep(2)
t1 = Time.now
t1.to_f - t0.to_f # => 2.00059294700623

So by creating a "last transmission" time object then checking its difference from "now" you can determine the number of seconds passed and act accordingly.

Answer 2

This might help: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Ruby_Programming/Reference/Objects/Socket#Keeping_a_connection_alive_over_time_when_there_is_no_traffic_being_sent