netdev - connect() man page

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Message-ID: <f8517600-620b-1604-5f30-0f0698f5e33c@gmail.com>
Date:   Wed, 12 Feb 2020 09:50:53 -0800
From:   Eric Dumazet <eric.dumazet@...il.com>
To:     Michael Kerrisk <mtk.manpages@...il.com>,
        netdev <netdev@...r.kernel.org>, linux-man@...r.kernel.org
Subject: connect() man page

Hi Michael

connect() man page seems obsolete or confusing :

       Generally,  connection-based  protocol  sockets may successfully connect()
       only once; connectionless protocol  sockets  may  use  connect()  multiple
       times  to  change  their association.  Connectionless sockets may dissolve
       the association by connecting to an address with the sa_family  member  of
       sockaddr set to AF_UNSPEC (supported on Linux since kernel 2.2).


1) At least TCP has supported AF_UNSPEC thing forever.

2) By definition connectionless sockets do not have an association,
   why would they call connect(AF_UNSPEC) to remove a connection which does not exist ...

Maybe we should rewrite this paragraph to match reality, since this causes confusion.


       Some protocol sockets may successfully connect() only once.
       Some protocol sockets may use connect() multiple times  to  change  their association.
       Some protocol sockets may dissolve the association by connecting to an address with
       the sa_family member of sockaddr set to AF_UNSPEC (supported on Linux since kernel 2.2).

Thanks.