Why is writing a closed TCP socket worse than reading one?

Question

When you read a closed TCP socket you get a regular error, i.e. it either returns 0 indicating EOF or -1 and an error code in errno which can be printed with pe

Answer 1

Usually if you're writing to a socket, you would expect the other end to be listening. This is sort of like a telephone call - if you're speaking, you wouldn't expect the other party to simply hang up the call.

If you're reading from a socket, then you're expecting the other end to either (a) send you something, or (b) close the socket. Situation (b) would happen if you've just sent something like a QUIT command to the other end.