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TCP(7)			   Linux Programmer's Manual			TCP(7)

NAME
       tcp - TCP protocol

SYNOPSIS
       #include <sys/socket.h>
       #include <netinet/in.h>
       #include <netinet/tcp.h>

       tcp_socket = socket(AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, 0);

DESCRIPTION
       This  is	 an  implementation  of	 the  TCP protocol defined in RFC 793,
       RFC 1122 and RFC 2001 with the NewReno and SACK	extensions.   It  pro‐
       vides  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 gener‐
       ates 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 incom‐
       ing 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) suc‐
       cessfully 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	inter‐
       nal  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 informa‐
       tion.

       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  ker‐
       nel 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 nor‐
       mal  data stream (a program can test for its location using the SIOCAT‐
       MARK ioctl described below), otherwise it can be received only 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 Notifi‐
       cation, new management of TIME_WAIT sockets, keep-alive socket  options
       and support for Duplicate SACK extensions.

   Address formats
       TCP  is built on top of IP (see ip(7)).	The address formats defined by
       ip(7) apply to TCP.  TCP supports  point-to-point  communication	 only;
       broadcasting and multicasting are not supported.

   /proc interfaces
       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	corre‐
       sponding 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 seg‐
		 ments 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 listen‐
	      ing  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  applica‐
	      tion  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 applica‐
	      tion  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_CONGES‐
	      TION socket option).  The items in the  list  are	 separated  by
	      white  space and terminated by a newline character.  The list is
	      a subset of those	 listed	 in  tcp_available_congestion_control.
	      The  default value for this list is "reno" plus the default set‐
	      ting of tcp_congestion_control.

       tcp_autocorking (Boolean; default: enabled; since Linux 3.14)
	      If this option is enabled, the kernel tries  to  coalesce	 small
	      writes  (from consecutive write(2) and sendmsg(2) calls) as much
	      as possible, in order to decrease the total number of sent pack‐
	      ets.   Coalescing	 is  done if at least one prior packet for the
	      flow is waiting  in  Qdisc  queues  or  device  transmit	queue.
	      Applications  can still use the TCP_CORK socket option to obtain
	      optimal behavior when they know how/when to uncork  their	 sock‐
	      ets.

       tcp_available_congestion_control	  (String;   read-only;	  since	 Linux
       2.4.20)
	      Show a list of the congestion-control algorithms that are regis‐
	      tered.   The  items in the list are separated by white space and
	      terminated by a newline character.  This list is a limiting  set
	      for  the	list  in tcp_allowed_congestion_control.  More conges‐
	      tion-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 lin‐
	      ear RTT fairness as well as good scalability.  Under small  con‐
	      gestion  windows,	 binary search increase provides TCP friendli‐
	      ness.

       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  con‐
	      verge 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 configu‐
	      ration.  The default value for this file is set as part of  ker‐
	      nel 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 viola‐
	      tion 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 retransmis‐
	      sion 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 ver‐
		 sion 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,  sup‐
	      porting 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 concern‐
	      ing 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  cau‐
		 tious); 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  giv‐
	      ing  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 sent only
	      when the SO_KEEPALIVE socket option  is  enabled.	  The  default
	      value  is	 7200 seconds (2 hours).  An idle connection is termi‐
	      nated 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 applica‐
	      tion 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 dis‐
	      abled, 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.	  Net‐
	      work  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 drop‐
	      ping 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  mem‐
	      ory  (<=	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-ser‐
	      vice 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  con‐
			sumption.   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 Discov‐
	      ery.  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 estab‐
	      lished in the near future can use these to  set  initial	condi‐
	      tions.   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	 imme‐
	      diately 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, alloca‐
			tions 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_win‐
			dow_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  conges‐
	      tion  window after an idle period.  An idle period is defined as
	      the current RTO (retransmission timeout).	 If disabled, the con‐
	      gestion 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  interpreta‐
	      tion, the urgent pointer points to the last byte of urgent data.
	      If this option is disabled, then use the	BSD-compatible	inter‐
	      pretation	 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 con‐
	      nection 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  CON‐
	      FIG_SYN_COOKIES.	Send out syncookies when the syn backlog queue
	      of a socket overflows.  The syncookies feature attempts to  pro‐
	      tect 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	proto‐
	      col,  and	 conflicts  with other areas of TCP such as TCP exten‐
	      sions.  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	recom‐
	      mended 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	 work‐
	      ing 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	 West‐
	      wood+  is a sender-side only modification of the TCP Reno proto‐
	      col stack that optimizes the performance of TCP congestion  con‐
	      trol.   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 experi‐
	      enced.  TCP  Westwood+  significantly  increases	fairness  with
	      respect  to TCP Reno in wired networks and throughput over wire‐
	      less 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 nego‐
	      tiate  the  use of window scaling with the other end during con‐
	      nection 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 proto‐
			cols.  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	calcu‐
			lated using the formula

			    max(65536, min(4MB, tcp_mem[1]*PAGE_SIZE/128))

			(On  Linux  2.4, the default value is 128K bytes, low‐
			ered 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.

   Socket options
       To  set	or get a TCP socket option, call getsockopt(2) to read or set‐
       sockopt(2) to write the option with the option level  argument  set  to
       IPPROTO_TCP.   Unless  otherwise	 noted, optval is a pointer to an int.
       In addition, most IPPROTO_IP socket options are valid on	 TCP  sockets.
       For more information see ip(7).

       TCP_CONGESTION (since Linux 2.6.13)
	      The  argument  for  this option is a string.  This option allows
	      the caller to set the TCP congestion  control  algorithm	to  be
	      used,   on  a  per-socket	 basis.	  Unprivileged	processes  are
	      restricted to choosing one of the algorithms in tcp_allowed_con‐
	      gestion_control	(described   above).	Privileged   processes
	      (CAP_NET_ADMIN) can choose from any of the available congestion-
	      control algorithms (see the description of tcp_available_conges‐
	      tion_control above).

       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 use‐
	      ful 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 connec‐
	      tion.   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.  In Linux 2.2
	      and earlier, and in Linux 2.6.28 and later, 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 uti‐
	      lization 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 pro‐
	      cessing 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_USER_TIMEOUT (since Linux 2.6.37)
	      This option takes an unsigned int	 as  an	 argument.   When  the
	      value is greater than 0, it specifies the maximum amount of time
	      in milliseconds that transmitted data may remain	unacknowledged
	      before  TCP will forcibly close the corresponding connection and
	      return ETIMEDOUT to the application.  If	the  option  value  is
	      specified as 0, TCP will to use the system default.

	      Increasing  user	timeouts  allows  a  TCP connection to survive
	      extended periods without	end-to-end  connectivity.   Decreasing
	      user timeouts allows applications to "fail fast", if so desired.
	      Otherwise, failure may take up to 20 minutes  with  the  current
	      system defaults in a normal WAN environment.

	      This option can be set during any state of a TCP connection, but
	      is only effective during the synchronized states of a connection
	      (ESTABLISHED,  FIN-WAIT-1,  FIN-WAIT-2, CLOSE-WAIT, CLOSING, and
	      LAST-ACK).   Moreover,  when  used  with	 the   TCP   keepalive
	      (SO_KEEPALIVE)  option, TCP_USER_TIMEOUT will override keepalive
	      to determine when to close a connection due to  keepalive	 fail‐
	      ure.

	      The  option  has no effect on when TCP retransmits a packet, nor
	      when a keepalive probe is sent.

	      This option, like many others, will be inherited by  the	socket
	      returned by accept(2), if it was set on the listening socket.

	      Further  details	on  the	 user  timeout feature can be found in
	      RFC 793 and RFC 5482 ("TCP User Timeout Option").

       TCP_WINDOW_CLAMP (since Linux 2.4)
	      Bound the size of the advertised window to this value.  The ker‐
	      nel  imposes  a  minimum size of SOCK_MIN_RCVBUF/2.  This option
	      should not be used in code intended to be portable.

   Sockets API
       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  nor‐
       mal  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 interop‐
       erability   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-sup‐
       plied  buffer.	Since Linux 2.4.4, MSG_TRUNC also has this effect when
       used in conjunction with MSG_OOB to receive out-of-band data.

   Ioctls
       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 (EIN‐
	      VAL)  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 SIOCAT‐
	      MARK  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 (request‐
	      ing 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>.	Alter‐
	      natively,	 you  can  use	the  synonymous	 TIOCOUTQ,  defined in
	      <sys/ioctl.h>.

   Error handling
       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.

ERRORS
       EAFNOTSUPPORT
	      Passed socket address type in sin_family was not AF_INET.

       EPIPE  The other end closed the socket unexpectedly or a read  is  exe‐
	      cuted 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.

VERSIONS
       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.

BUGS
       Not all errors are documented.
       IPv6 is not described.

SEE ALSO
       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 algo‐
       rithm.
       RFC 1323 for TCP timestamp and window scaling options.
       RFC 1337 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.

COLOPHON
       This page is part of release 3.65 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				  2014-03-31				TCP(7)
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