Ruby: Difference between read_timeout and open_timeout

Question

The title explains itself... what\'s the difference between read_timeout and open_timeout?

Answer 1

open_timeout is the amount of time you are willing to wait for 'opening a connection'. In TCP context, the amount of time you wait for the handshake to complete before dropping the attempt and throwing a timeout error.

read_timeout as you might guess, is the time you are willing to wait for some data to be received from the connected party. An example might make this clear:

In SOAP over HTTP over TCP context (simplified):

• You try to establish a TCP connection with the server. If the connection establishment takes longer than open_timeout, you drop the connection attempt and raise/signal/return timeout error.

• If connection is successful, you send the HTTP request out. (This can fail too, and can have it's own timeout)

• You then wait for a response from the server. If the response takes longer than read_timeout, you drop the connection and raise/signal/return timeout error.