[comp.protocols.tcp-ip] Interpreting RFC 793

victor@kuling.UUCP (Bjorn Victor) (04/21/87)

As I'm working on a TCP implementation, I have a question on the
interpretation of RFC 793 (please look in your copy):

On page 73 (Segment Arrives, otherwise clause, ACK bit clause), in
state FIN-WAIT-1, it says
    "..., if our FIN is now acknowledged then enter FIN-WAIT-2 and
    continue processing in that state."
On page 75 (Segment Arrives, otherwise clause, FIN bit clause), in
state FIN-WAIT-1, it says
    "If our FIN has been ACKed (perhaps in this segment), then enter
    TIME-WAIT, ..."

Now, could somebody please explain how we could possibly "execute" the
quoted sentence on page 75?  If our FIN *was* ACKed, we're no longer
in the FIN-WAIT-1 state!?

Also, if someone could point me to a more formal description of TCP,
I'd be more than happy.

--Bjorn Victor		       UUCP: {mcvax,seismo}!enea!kuling!victor
Dept. of Computer Systems      ARPA: Victor%Carmen.UU.SE@Seismo.CSS.GOV,
Uppsala University, SWEDEN	     victor%kuling.UU.SE@Seismo.CSS.GOV
-- 
--Bjorn Victor		       UUCP: {mcvax,seismo}!enea!kuling!victor
Dept. of Computer Systems      ARPA: Victor%Carmen.UU.SE@Seismo.CSS.GOV,
Uppsala University, SWEDEN	     victor%kuling.UU.SE@Seismo.CSS.GOV

CLYNN@G.BBN.COM.UUCP (04/22/87)

Bjorn,
	Technically, you can't; in fact, the next paragraph on page 75,
FIN-WAIT-2, says to do exactly the same thing as does the FIN-WAIT-1
state when the FIN has been acked.  I view the situation as an explicit
restatement of robustness -- a correct implementation shouldn't get into
that state, but if it does (software implementations have been known to
contain bugs) then there is a way to recover.  Maybe there should be a
statement to the effect that you shouldn't be here, write an entry into
the system error log.

Charlie

PADLIPSKY@A.ISI.EDU (Michael Padlipsky) (04/24/87)

A great deal of time and trouble went into making "MIL-STD-1778"
("Military Standard Transmission Control Protocol") APPEAR to be more
formal than the RFC TCP spec.  It would be interesting to learn if
a relatively neutral observer thought it actually IS more formal--
and, as a purist's point, whether that makes it more useful, since
I doubt there's an a priori correlation between formality and utility.

Given that page ii says that "benefical comments" can go to
Defense Communications Agency
ATTN: J110
1860 Wiehle Avenue
Reston, VA 22090
and that I don't see any "ordering information" elsewhere (not that
it's necessarily not there, just that I don't see it), presumably
a request for a copy could go to that address as well with some chance
of being fulfilled.

cheers, map
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