Apache HttpClient CoreConnectionPNames.CONNECTION_TIMEOUT does nothing?

Question

I get strange behavior from HttpClient with parameter CoreConnectionPNames.CONNECTION_TIMEOUT set to 1. I would expect that HttpGet request would fail, throwing connection timeout exception and yet they are successful. This seems irrational as it actually means that TCP handshake finished in less then 1 millisecond.

The httpclient version I'm using as can be seen in this pom.xml is

    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.apache.httpcomponents</groupId>
        <artifactId>httpclient</artifactId>
        <version>4.0.1</version>
        <type>jar</type>
    </dependency>

Here is the code:

import java.io.IOException;
import java.util.Random;

import org.apache.http.HttpEntity;
import org.apache.http.HttpResponse;
import org.apache.http.client.ClientProtocolException;
import org.apache.http.client.HttpClient;
import org.apache.http.client.methods.HttpGet;
import org.apache.http.client.methods.HttpUriRequest;
import org.apache.http.impl.client.DefaultHttpClient;
import org.apache.http.params.CoreConnectionPNames;
import org.apache.http.util.EntityUtils;
import org.apache.log4j.Logger;

public class TestNodeAliveness {
    private static Logger log = Logger.getLogger(TestNodeAliveness.class);

    public static boolean nodeBIT(String elasticIP) throws ClientProtocolException, IOException {
        try {
            HttpClient client = new DefaultHttpClient();

            // The time it takes to open TCP connection.
            client.getParams().setParameter(CoreConnectionPNames.CONNECTION_TIMEOUT, 1);

            // Timeout when server does not send data.
            client.getParams().setParameter(CoreConnectionPNames.SO_TIMEOUT, 5000);

            // Some tuning that is not required for bit tests.
            client.getParams().setParameter(CoreConnectionPNames.STALE_CONNECTION_CHECK, false);
            client.getParams().setParameter(CoreConnectionPNames.TCP_NODELAY, true);


            HttpUriRequest request = new HttpGet("http://" + elasticIP);
            HttpResponse response = client.execute(request);

            HttpEntity entity = response.getEntity();
            if(entity == null) { 
                return false;
            } else {
                System.out.println(EntityUtils.toString(entity));
            }

            // Close just in case.
            request.abort();

        } catch (Throwable e) {
            log.warn("BIT Test failed for " + elasticIP);
            e.printStackTrace();

            return false;
        }

        return true;
    }


    public static void main(String[] args) throws ClientProtocolException, IOException {
        nodeBIT("google.com?cant_cache_this=" + (new Random()).nextInt());
    }
}

How is this possible? Thank you.

ok2c · Accepted Answer · 2010-06-09 21:51:27Z

5

The effective granularity of time-outs in all JVMs I have worked with is approximately 15-30ms. Even if the timeout is set to 1 socket I/O and connect requests often succeed if they take less than 15-30ms.

answered Jun 9, 2010 at 21:51

ok2c

27.9k5 gold badges66 silver badges74 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

1 Comment

Jono Over a year ago

Ok so how do you effectively set a timeout that when if you dont recieve a response from the server after 5seconds you throw an exception?

Greg King · Accepted Answer · 2014-12-10 09:38:35Z

1

If you set the timeout of the HttpGet,instead of the HttpClient, it seems to work much better.

    HttpGet httpget = new HttpGet("http://www.apache.org/");

    RequestConfig Default = RequestConfig.DEFAULT;

    RequestConfig requestConfig = RequestConfig.copy(Default)
            .setSocketTimeout(5000)
            .setConnectTimeout(5000)
            .setConnectionRequestTimeout(5000)
            .build();
    httpget.setConfig(requestConfig);

answered Dec 10, 2014 at 9:38

Greg King

1401 silver badge9 bronze badges

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Apache HttpClient CoreConnectionPNames.CONNECTION_TIMEOUT does nothing?

2 Answers 2

1 Comment

Comments

Your Answer

Linked

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

1 Comment

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Linked

Related