Does connect() block for TCP socket?

Question

Hi I am reading TLPI (The Linux Programming Interface), I have a question about connect().

As I understand, connect() will immediately return if the pending connecti

Answer 1

connect() blocks until finishing TCP 3-way handshake. Handshake on listening side is handled by TCP/IP stack in kernel and finished without notifying user process. Only after handshake is completed (and initiator can return from connect() call already), accept() in user process can pick up new socket and return. No waiting accept() needed for completing handshake.

The reason is simple: if you have single threaded process listening for connections and require waiting accept() for establishing connections, you can't respond to TCP SYN's while processing another request. TCP stack on initating side will retransmit, but on moderately loaded server chances are high this retransmitted packet still will arrive while no accept() pending and will be dropped again, resulting in ugly delays and connection timeouts.