Socket buffer size not increasing

Question

int n = 0;
if ( 0 != getsockopt(iSockFd,SOL_SOCKET,SO_RCVBUF, &n, sizeof(n)))
{
    printf("Get socket option failed, errno: %d\n",errno);
}
else
{
    printf("Current socket buff len = %d\n", n);
}
n = 225280;
if(0 != setsockopt(iSockFd, SOL_SOCKET, SO_RCVBUF, (const void *)&n, sizeof(n)))
{
    printf("setsock err errno %d\n", errno);
}
else
{
    printf("setsock opt success\n");
}
n = 0;
if ( 0 != getsockopt(iSockFd,SOL_SOCKET,SO_RCVBUF, &n, sizeof(n)))
{
    printf("Get socket option failed, errno: %d\n",errno);
}
else
{
    printf("After setting socket buff len = %d\n", n);
}

Output is -

Current socket buff len = 41600

setsock opt success

After setting socket buff len = 41600.

Looks like receive buffer size is not increasing, any idea why this happens?

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

If the kernel is of newer version (2.6.17 or higher), checkout whether autotuning is enabled by verifying the file /proc/sys/net/ipv4/tcp_moderate_rcvbuf . If the value of tcp_moderate_rcvbuf is 1, then autotuning is enabled. In such a scenario, the receive buffer will be dynamically updated by the kernel and is bound to the values in /proc/sys/net/ipv4/tcp_rmem. Check whether this limit is hit.

If the kernel is of older version, check whether the SO_RCVBUF is limited by the values in /proc/sys/net/core/rmem_default and /proc/sys/net/core/rmem_max. Incase of TCP, also check the value of /proc/sys/net/ipv4/tcp_rmem

Also note that 'Manually adjusting socket buffer sizes with setsockopt() disables autotuning' . Here is good link on tuning for linux http://www.psc.edu/index.php/networking/641-tcp-tune