[Live-devel] RTSP server socket bind error

[Ross Finlayson]

>Thanks for your reply. I agree that SO_LINGER is not the recommended 
>way of getting
>round the TIME_WAIT state. I had a closer look at the RTSP server 
>code and realized that
>the SO_REUSEADDR option is turned off at the server socket in 
>RTSPServer::setUpOurSocket()
>and that is why the server cannot be restarted.
>
>If I set the option by removing the creation of the dummy NoReuse 
>object, then the server can
>bind again to the same port straight away as expected. Is 
>SO_REUSEADDR turned off just to avoid
>data corruption (e.g. there is a remote possibility of data that is 
>hanging around from the old
>dead connection to be inserted to the new TCP stream after the 
>server is restarted)?

No, SO_REUSEADDR (and SO_REUSEPORT) is turned off for the server for 
a very simple reason: We can't have more than one server on the same 
host using the same port at the same time!  I.e., we don't want to 
start a RTSP server on port 554 (for example) if the computer already 
has a server running with that port.  Similarly for the HTTP port 
(for RTSP-over-HTTP tunneling, or HTTP Live Streaming): We can't have 
the server use a HTTP port if there's already a HTTP server running 
with that port.  (That's why our code tries several different HTTP 
port numbers in succession: 80, then 8000, then 8080.)

So, in conclusion: Don't change the code.  If you end up having to 
<control>-C a server, then just be patient and wait a few seconds 
before starting it up again.
-- 

Ross Finlayson
Live Networks, Inc.
http://www.live555.com/