Hi,
Sometimes when I try to send some packets continuously( I am using the send() API ) I receive this error. Now I am not sure what should I do than. I have these questions: 1) Can I re-send again ? If yes then after how much time should I try again. Is there any particular strategy to be followed
2) Is buffer size has exceeded its limits is the only reason ?
3) Can someone please give me a better idea/code, how to handle such scenario.
Thanks. Sambit.
EAGAIN is usually returned when there is no outbound buffer space left. How long to wait depends on the speed of the underlying connection. The normal way is to wait until select() or poll() tells you that the socket is available for writing. If on Linux, take a look at the select_tut(2) manpage, and of course the send(2) manpage.
You could change to blocking operation (which is the default) if you want the call to wait until there is space available. Or you could call select(2) to wait until the socket is writeable and then try again.
There is one other important consideration. If you are sending UDP packets, then keep in mind that there is no guarantee of congestion control, and if you're sending packets over the Internet you will almost certainly get packet loss if you just try sending UDP packets as fast as possible (this doesn't necessarily apply to other datagram sockets such as Unix sockets).
From send(): "EAGAIN -- The socket is marked non-blocking and the requested operation would block." and also
When the message does not fit into the send buffer of the socket, send normally blocks, unless the socket has been placed in non-blocking I/O mode. In non-blocking mode it would return EAGAIN in this case. The select(2) call may be used to determine when it is possible to send more data.
This thread has a simple example of using select() to deal with EAGAIN, and is followed by significant discussion about what sorts of surprises lurk beneath the surface.