Java socket API: How to tell if a connection has been closed?

Question

I am running into some issues with the Java socket API. I am trying to display the number of players currently connected to my game. It is easy to determine when a player h

Answer 1

On Linux when write()ing into a socket which the other side, unknown to you, closed will provoke a SIGPIPE signal/exception however you want to call it. However if you don't want to be caught out by the SIGPIPE you can use send() with the flag MSG_NOSIGNAL. The send() call will return with -1 and in this case you can check errno which will tell you that you tried to write a broken pipe (in this case a socket) with the value EPIPE which according to errno.h is equivalent to 32. As a reaction to the EPIPE you could double back and try to reopen the socket and try to send your information again.