[erlang-questions] strange behaviour of gen_tcp:connect

[Raimo Niskanen]

On Tue, Apr 07, 2009 at 11:13:46AM +0200, Gamoto wrote:
> I an windows server 2003. I don't understand why gen_tcp:connect returns ALWAYS an error.
> "connect" should be blocking, the port is free, I didn't precise a timeout.  I also tried with "localhost".
> Another strange effect: error returned is "econnrefused" or, when another emacs is opened with erlang code inside, the returned error is "timeout" !!!
> Is it "normal" with Erlang ?

What do you mean by "the port is free". Something must
be listening on port 1688 for the loopback interface.
If nothing is listening on the port, the TCP stack
of the OS will immediately inform gen_tcp about 
that, hence the econnrefused.

This is basic TCP/IP, no Erlang quirks.

I also have a Win2003Server:

1> gen_tcp:connect("127.0.0.1",3389,[binary, {packet, 0}]).
{ok,#Port<0.444>}

since I have a Windows remote desktop server
listening on port 3389.

If you really want the IP address, use the Erlang
gen_tcp IP address tuple as documented in:
	http://www.erlang.org/doc/man/inet.html
{127,0,0,1} instead of "127.0.0.1". The first
is taken as an IP address direct, the second
is processed through the name resolver.

> 
> John
> 
> start()->
>     case gen_tcp:connect("127.0.0.1",1688,[binary, {packet, 0}]) of
>         {ok,Socket}->	
> 	    io:format("Socket established~n"),
> 	    loop(Socket);
> 	{error,Reason}->
> 	    io:format("Error on connect: ~s~n",[Reason])
>     end.
> 
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-- 

/ Raimo Niskanen, Erlang/OTP, Ericsson AB